Churches - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Windsor Avenue Congregational Church (1871)

Faith Congregational Church, located on Main Street, across from Spring Grove Cemetery, in Hartford’s North End, was originally built as the Windsor Avenue Congregational Church in 1871. The Romanesque Revival and High Victorian Gothic style church was constructed by the Pavillion Congregational Society, organized in 1870. Among the church’s ministers was Charles E. Stowe, pastor from 1883 to 1890. Stowe was the son of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who attended church there regularly during her son’s ministry. Since 1953, the church has been the home of Faith Congregational Church, a congregation formed from a merger of Talcott Street Congregational Church and Mother Bethel Methodist Church. Talcott Street Congregational was Hartford’s first black church, founded by the African Religious Society in 1826. Members of the Society had become weary of being assigned seats in the rear of churches and wished to found a church where there would be no assigned seating. The church became an important institution for Hartford’s black community and a center for abolitionist activity. An early minister was James W.C. Pennington, who had escaped slavery in Maryland. Rev. Pennington feared being dragged back to slavery, until John Hooker, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s brother-in-law, purchased his freedom from the estate of his former owner. The African Religious Society also founded Hartford’s first black public school in 1829. Faith Congregational Church is a site on the Connecticut Freedom Trail.

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Christ Episcopal Church, Guilford (1838)

Samuel Johnson, the first Episcopal clergyman in Connecticut, organized Christ Church in Guilford in 1744. The Episcopalians first used a small church, built in 1748 and located within the bounds of Guilford Green. In 1834, the church was sold, with the proceeds financing the construction, in 1834-1838, of a new Gothic-Revival church with a grandly imposing tower. Local builder William Weld constructed a chancel in 1872 and another addition, for an organ, was built in 1890.

Chester Meeting House (1793)

The old colony of Saybrook covered a geographic area which was later subdivided into many different towns. As was common in the colonial era, these divisions were centered on the establishment of separate church congregations. The original First Ecclesiastical Society of Saybrook was founded in what is now Old Saybrook in 1646. Second and Third Societies were established at Centerbrook (now in the town of Essex) in 1725 and at Westbrook in 1726. The Fourth Ecclesiastical Society of Saybrook was established in what is now the town of Chester in 1742. The society’s second meeting house was constructed in 1793-1795 and served the congregation until a new church was built (the United Church of Chester now worships in its fourth church building). The old meeting house was then purchased by the town of Chester in 1847 and was used as the Town Hall until 1960, when meetings were moved to a newly constructed elementary school. In addition to town meetings, the building also hosted theatrical productions and other events, facilitated by its remodeling as a theater space in 1876. P.T. Barnum’s star, Tom Thumb, made a notable appearance there and numerous recitals, dances and other events took place over the years. In 1972, the Chester Historical Society, which held its meetings in the building, undertook its restoration. Used again for a variety of meetings and performances, the Chester Meeting House had a new addition constructed in 1985.

Kensington Congregational Church (1774)

The Second Church of Farmington was gathered in 1712, in what is now the Town of Berlin. The first meeting house was located on the road that came to be called “Christian Lane.” The congregation was officially given the name of Kensington in 1722. A new and larger meeting house was built around 1733 a mile south of the first one. The congregational society was divided in 1754 with the creation of new society in New Britain. The original society was again divided between east and west sections in 1772. The west section retained the name Kensington, the east was known as Worthington. Both societies continued to share the old meeting house until the separate Worthington church was completed in 1774. The Kensington Society then built its own new church, over a mile west of the old one, which was dedicated on December 1, 1774. The two communities of Kensington and Worthington later joined in 1785 to form the Town of Berlin (New Britain remained a part of Berlin until 1850). Over the years, the Kensington Congregational Church has been expanded to the rear and adapted in the Greek Revival style.

Haddam Neck Congregational Church (1874)

Haddam Neck, on the east bank of the Connecticut River, was originally settled around 1710. For thirty years, the residents made the trip each Sunday across the River to attend church services in Haddam. In 1740, residents of Haddam Neck joined with those of Middle Haddam (in East Hampton) to form a seperate ecclesiastical society, the First Congregational Church of Middle Haddam. The first meetinghouse was constructed in 1744 on Hog Hill, between the two communities, and this was replaced by a new building in 1813, located near Hurd Park. Middle Haddam residents withdrew to form their own church in 1855. The current Haddam Neck Congregational Church, a wooden Gothic Revival church in a woodland setting, was built at the foot of School House Hill in 1873-1874. In 1916, Haddam’s old 1822 schoolhouse was moved adjacent to the church to serve as a parish house.

First Congregational Church of Guilford (1830)

The First Congregational Church in Guilford dates back to 1639, when Rev. Henry Whitfield and his followers sailed from England to New Haven and settled the town of Guilford, then part of New Haven Colony. They had drawn up a covenant on shipboard during their journey to America. The town’s first meeting house, a small stone building with a thatched roof, was soon built on Guilford Green, replaced in 1713 by a new church, said to have been the first in Connecticut to have a steeple clock and bell. In the early nineteenth century there was a movement to clear the Green of buildings. The current church was then built in 1830, on a site overlooking the Green. The Hurricane of 1938 toppled the original steeple, which was rebuilt the following year.

Enfield Congregational Church (1849)

Today we look at the congregational churches in two neighboring towns, Enfield and Longmeadow, Massachusetts (the latter over at Historic Buildings of Massachusetts, which has had a number of additions in recent days from towns such has Marlborough, Sudbury, Wayland, Weston, Waltham and Lexington, as well as Longmeadow). The church in Enfield was first authorized in 1680, when the earliest settlers from Salem, Massachusetts, set up home sites in the town. The first church building was constructed in 1683, although the congregation’s first minister was not hired until 1699. The second church building was constructed in 1708 and it was here, in July 1741, that Jonathan Edwards delivered his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” That church no longer exists, but a stone with a plaque marks its former location. The third Enfield meetinghouse was built in 1775, and is still standing; it later served as a town hall and is now a museum. When the current church was built, in 1849, the old building was moved across the street, rotated 180 degrees and had columns added to match the Greek Revival style of the new building.