Griswoldville is a section of Wethersfield. In the nineteenth century, when the weather was bad, residents of the area often had to contend with a difficult journey to reach First Church for Sunday services. In 1872, a chapel and Sunday school building was constructed to serve Griswoldville. Men and oxen hauled the stones used for the foundation from Cromwell. In 1880, a Ladies Chapel Society was founded, which supported the chapel by holding various events to raise money.
The Georgian Revival-style Second Church of Christ Scientist, located off Columbus Green in Hartford, was designed by the architects Isaac A. Allen & Son and was built over several years in 1920s. The foundation was finished in 1924 and in 1927, with assistance from William A. Boring, the remaining superstructure was completed. The interior dates to 1929. Like such neighboring buildings as the Connecticut State Library and Supreme Court, the church was part of an attempt to create a setting in keeping with the “City Beautiful” movement of the early twentieth century.
The First Presbyterian Church of Hartford was formed in 1851 and had several homes until a chapel, in 1868, and then a sanctuary, in 1870, were built. Located on Capitol Avenue, near the Bushnell Memorial, the First Presbyterian Church was designed by Renwick & Sands (James Renwick, Jr. was architect of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and the Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington D.C.). It is a polychromatic stone building in the High Victorian Romanesque style.
In 1842, a group gathered primarily from Norwich’s Second Congregational Church formed a new congregation which met in the town hall until their own church building was constructed on Main Street in 1845. Known as the Main Street Congregational Church, they eventually built a new building on Broadway after the Main Street structure was destroyed by fire in 1854. The Broadway Congregational Church, a much larger building than the first, was built in the Romanesque Revival style between 1855 and 1857. Broadway Congregational later merged with the Second Church congregation and has since been known as the United Congregational Church. The building originally had a spire that was 200 feet high, but it was struck by lightning and removed in 1898.
Norwich’s First Congregational Church, located on East Town Street, next to Norwichtown Green, is the fifth in a succession of early meeting houses. The first was built on the southeast corner of the Green in 1660, in Norwichtown, the earliest part of Norwich to be settled. During the troubled period of King Philip’s War, it was replaced by a second structure, constructed in 1673 on the nearby cliff area, known as the Meeting House Rocks. There it could also serve as a lookout post in case of Indian raids. After being replaced by a third building later on, the fourth building was built in 1752 back on the plain below. After that church burned, it was replaced, on the same site, by the current Federal-style structure in 1801. When construction began that year, the cornerstone was laid by Ebenezer Huntington. There was extensive remodeling in 1845. (more…)
In 1701, the people of Hartford living east of the Connecticut river were granted the right to their own minister. In 1783, when East Hartford became a separate town, the church became the First Congregational Church in East Hartford. The first meeting house was begun in 1699 and took several years to complete. It was later replaced by the second meeting house in 1740, which was torn down in 1835 when the current structure was built on Main Street. The completed church was dedicated in January 1836. The interior was extensively altered after a fire in 1876.
The home of the Yale Repertory Theatre is located on Chapel Street in New Haven. Originally built as Calvary Baptist Church in 1871, the building’s steeple was removed in 1966 when it was deconsecrated and sold to become a theater. The church was designed by Rufus G. Russell, who had trained with Henry Austin.
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