St. Mary Church, Stonington (1901)

The Blessing of the Fleet each summer is a yearly tradition in the Borough of Stonington. The event honors local fisherman who died at sea and blesses the fishing fleet for the safety and success of current fishermen. It begins with the Fishermen’s Mass at St. Mary Catholic Church, followed by a parade and the blessing at the dock by the Catholic Bishop of Norwich. By 1950 more than half of Stonington’s fishermen were of Portuguese descent and the first Blessing of the Fleet, which took place on July 1, 1956, was inspired by similar events held in other Portuguese fishing communities. Two institutions that are central to Stonington’s Portuguese community are St. Mary’s Church and the Portuguese Holy Ghost Society. As described in the History of the Town of Stonington (1900), by Richard Anson Wheeler:

St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church at Stonington Borough.— This church was formed in 1851, and the edifice was erected the same year by subscriptions from the Catholics of Stonington, Westerly and the Mystics, under the supervision of Rev. P. Duffy, who was the first pastor. At present it is joined to Mystic as an out-mission and attended by the priests at Mystic, the Rev. Father Murphy being its present pastor.

The 1851 church was eventually expanded/replaced by a new structure. According to the Town of Stonington’s Property Listing Report, the current church building at 22 Broad Street was built in 1901.

Connor Chapel of Our Lady, University of Saint Joseph (1966)

The University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford is a Roman Catholic coeducational institution of higher education that was founded in 1932 as a college for women. The University‘s Chapel, built in 1965-1966, was the gift of Joseph and Jane Cullen Connor. Joseph passed away two weeks before the ceremonial groundbreaking, which took place on July 16, 1965. Jane broke ground and as she dug in her shovel she prayed “May all who enter this Chapel be saved.” These words are inscribed on the narthex floor inside the main doors. The Connor Chapel of Our Lady has the shape of a cross and the interior focuses on a central raised altar.

Elmwood Community Church (1928)

In 1873, the South District Sunday School was organized to serve the Elmwood section of West Hartford. Within a few years the organization raised funds to erect a chapel. Built in 1876, the interdenominational Elmwood Chapel was located at the corner of New Britain Avenue and Grove Street/South Quaker Lane. Classes were held there on Sunday afternoons followed by services in the evening. After the First World War, attendance at the Chapel was increasing and there was a need for a new house of worship. In April 1921, a new independent Community Church was organized which merged with the earlier Elmwood Chapel Association. The new church would be Congregational, but members of the old Chapel would maintain their denominational affiliation. Funds were raised and work began on the new church, located at 26 Newington Road, in 1926. The corner stone was laid on May 8, 1927 by a Masonic delegation from the Wyllys Lodge No. 99 of West Hartford. The church opened for services in 1928, but parts of the interior and the steeple were not completed for several years. The sanctuary was renovated and rededicated in 1955 and in 1958 the church undertook an expansion program that included the raising of the steeple.

St. Thomas the Apostle Church, Oxford (1973)

Pictured above is the rear elevation of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, located at 733 Oxford Road in Oxford. The parish, established in 1966, began as a mission of St. Augustine Parish in Seymour. It later passed to the care of St. Rose, Newtown and then to St. Michael, Beacon Falls in 1924 before returning again to St. Augustine in 1948. In 1909, Judge Thomas Coman of New York donated money to build a chapel. Dedicated on July 2, 1912 to St. Mary, the chapel was renamed for St. Thomas the Apostle on October 9, 1916. In 1971 the site for the current church was chosen and the Coman chapel was sold the following year. The new church was dedicated on January 28, 1973.

St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Manchester (1956)

The first St. Mary’s Church in Manchester was organized in 1844, but the parish encountered financial difficulties and was dissolved in 1847. The members reestablished their church as an Episcopal parish in 1851, but the church again closed in 1869. Regular services were eventually reestablished in 1874 and on June 26, 1882, the cornerstone was laid for a new church on Church Street on land donated by the Cheney Brothers of the famous South Manchester silk mills. The church was consecrated on June 7, 1884. A new and larger church was planned in the 1920s, but the Great Depression slowed financing of the project. In 1953, ground was eventually broken for a new church, which was dedicated on September 5, 1956. The church faces Park Street and is connected to the old 1884 church, now called Resurrection Chapel, which was renovated in 2009 and has five Tiffany stained glass windows.

St. Paul’s Hall (1903)

The first St. Paul’s Church in Glastonbury was erected in 1903 at 40 Naubuc Avenue. Bishop Michael A. Tierney blessed the cornerstone on May 31, 1903 and the dedication ceremony took place on October 18. The previous year, the church had been made a mission of St. Augustine Parish, South Glastonbury. St. Paul’s was made a parish on September 23, 1954 and a new church, at 2577 Main Street, was dedicated on January 25, 1958. The former church on Naubuc Avenue became the Parish Hall. Today St Paul’s and St. Augustine’s parishes are joined in the Roman Catholic Community of Saints Isidore and Maria

Noank Baptist Church (1962)

Located at the highest point in the village of Noank in Groton (18 Cathedral Heights) is the Noank Baptist Church. The congregation dates back to 1843. An early meetinghouse was replaced by a new an Italianate-style church with two spires. The church was destroyed in a fire on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1959. It was rebuilt and the first service in the new building was on Easter Sunday, April 22, 1962, followed by the dedication service and a recital with the new organ on September 16, 1962.