Trinity United Methodist Church, New Britain (1891)

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The earliest Methodist church in New Britain was built at the corner of Main and Walnut Streets in 1828, replaced by a larger building in 1854. This was in turn replaced by a new Trinity United Methodist Church, located on the east side of Main Street (and Chestnut Street). The new granite Richardsonian Romanesque church, designed by Amos P. Cutting of Worcester, was built in 1889-1891. By 2000, the congregation could not afford the costly repairs the building required and voted to demolish the church. Local citizens formed a committee to save the church, which has now become Trinity-on-Main, a non-profit art center, education facility, community space and venue for events.

First Congregational Church, New London (1850)

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UPDATE (1/26/24): Sadly, the towering steeple and roof of the church collapsed on January 25, 2024 causing great damage to the building. 

For Christmas we feature a church with a very long history! New London‘s First Congregational Church was originally formed in 1642 in Gloucester, on Cape Ann in Massachusetts, under the leadership of Rev. Richard Blinman. This congregation moved to the new town of Pequot, settled in 1646 and later renamed New London. The first house of worship in New London was a large barn, with a meeting house being constructed around 1655 and replaced by a new church in the early 1680s. The third church, built in 1698, was was struck by lightning in 1735. Building a replacement was considered, but arguments over where to construct it led to the decision to repair and enlarge the existing edifice. A new church was eventually built in 1786 on Zion’s Hill. This was replaced by the current granite church in 1850, designed in the Gothic style by the Prague-born, New York-based architect, Leopold Eidlitz. The bell was installed in 1876. Merry Christmas from Historic Buildings of Connecticut!

Union Baptist Church, Mystic (1829)

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Located prominently on Baptist Hill in Mystic is the Union Baptist Church, which is actually two different church buildings that were eventually combined. The origins of the church date back to 1764, with revival services held in Groton in 1764 during the Great Awakening. Groton’s Second Baptist Church was established the following year in Fort Hill. By 1825, the village of West Mystic in Groton was being developed. According to Groton, Conn. 1705-1905, by Charles Rathbone Stark, “The need of better facilities for those on the banks of the Mystic River led a number of public-spirited men to build a house to be used for the benefit of all denominations, the pastors of the various churches rotating in occupancy of its pulpit. The house was built in 1829 and by reason of the large number of sea-faring men contributing to its erection it was called the Mariners Free Church.” The architect of the new church was Deacon Erastus Gallup of Ledyard. Over time, the other denominations built their own churches in Mystic, leaving the Third Baptist Church, founded in 1831 by members of the First Baptist Church, the only group still occupying the Mariners’ Church. Meanwhile, the Second Baptist Church had moved from Fort Hill to Mystic, building a church on High Street in 1845. In 1861, the Second and Third Churches joined to form Union Baptist Church. The Second Church’s building was moved up High Street and joined to the rear of the former Mariners’ Church. The original steeple was lost during the Hurricane of 1938 and the Church was without a steeple until a new one, with a carillon, was built in 1969.

First Congregational Church of Darien (1837)

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Congregational worship services in what is now the town of Darien were originally conducted in private homes starting in 1668. One such home was the Bates-Scofield House, now owned by the Darien Historical Society. At that time the community was still under the authority of the First Church in Stamford, but meetings for worship independent of Stamford began to be held in the 1730s. The Middlesex Ecclesiastical Society was officially organized in 1744, with its first minister, Moses Mather, who would remain in the pulpit for sixty-four years. The first meetinghouse was built in 1740 on the King’s Highway. Rev. Mather was a patriot during the Revolutionary War and, as described in Lossing’s Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution (1859), “On Sunday, the 22d of July [1781], the church was surrounded by a party of Tories, under Captain Frost, just as the congregation were singing the first tune. Dr. Mather and the men of the congregation were taken to the banks of the Sound, thrust into boats, and conveyed across to Lloyd’s Neck, on Long Island, whence they were carried to New York and placed in the Provost Jail. Some died there.” Rev. Mather and most of the prisoners were eventually released. Middlesex Parish, established in 1737, remained a part of the Town of Stamford until Darien became a separate town in 1820. A new and larger brick meetinghouse, was built adjacent to the original 1837 and a bell was installed in 1841. Additional church history can be read in a pdf file on the church website.

Cathedral of Saint Patrick, Norwich (1879)

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The Catholic Cathedral of Saint Patrick Parish, on Broadway in Norwich, was built during the 1870s. The new Cathedral was built because of the crowded conditions at Norwich’s first Catholic Church, St. Mary’s, which was built in 1845 and was the first Catholic Church in Connecticut on the East side of the Connecticut River. The Gothic-style Cathedral was designed by James Murphy of Providence, who was the brother-in-law of the famous church architect, Patrick Keely. The Cathedral was largely constructed by Norwich’s Irish residents. Ground breaking took place on Good Friday 1871 and the first mass was held in the completed building on St. Patrick’s Day, 1879. The Cathedral was extensively renovated in the 1950s.

Union Baptist Church, Hartford (1871)

Union Baptist Church is one of the oldest black congregations in Hartford. In 1889, there was a split in church’s membership and, although both groups wished to retain the name of Union Baptist Church, one group had already claimed a charter before the other group arrived, so the latter group established itself as Shiloh Baptist Church. The English Gothic building which is today Union Baptist Church, at 1921 Main Street in the city’s North End, was built in 1871 and was originally the Memorial Church of St. Thomas, an Episcopal church built in honor of Bishop Thomas Church Brownell, the founder of Trinity College. By the 1920s, St. Thomas Church was facing diminishing attendance. St. Monica’s, a black Episcopal congregation, which had been meeting in a dilapidated church formerly used by Shiloh Baptist Church, was allowed to use the Parish Hall of St. Thomas Church. Eventually, in 1925, the church was offered to Union Baptist Church and St. Monica’s congregation moved to a smaller church, on Mather Street, which Union Baptist had erected in 1908 and was now vacating.

Leaders and members of Union Baptist Church made important contributions to the early civil rights movement: the Reverend John C. Jackson, who who became pastor in 1922, worked to open employment opportunities for African Americans and in 1943 helped establish the Connecticut Inter-Racial Commission, now the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. C. Edythe Taylor, a member of the church, was the first African American teacher in the Hartford public school system. The Union Baptist Church is on the Connecticut Freedom Trail. (more…)