St. Alexis Orthodox Christian Church (1999)

St. Alexis Orthodox Christian Church, Clinton, CT

The parish of St. Alexis was founded in 1995 in Clinton as a mission of the Orthodox Church in America. The parish was named for St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre. Originally a Carpatho-Rusyn Eastern Rite Catholic (Uniate) priest, Alexis Toth came to America in 1889 to serve at St. Mary’s Greek Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Confronted by a Roman Catholic clergy which, seeking to Americanize Catholic immigrants, was hostile to to ethnic parishes, St. Alexis and his parish entered the Russian Orthodox Church in 1892. He would be responsible for many conversions of Uniate Catholics to Orthodoxy. St. Alexis died in 1909 and was canonized in 1994 as St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre by the Orthodox Church in America. The church in Clinton, at 108 East Main Street, was constructed in 1997-1999 to plans drawn by the firm of Hibbard and Rosa, Architects of Middletown.

Abraham Pierson School (1932)

The Abraham Pierson School is a Colonial Revival-style elementary school located at 75 East Main Street in the center of Clinton. The school is named for Abraham Pierson, who was pastor of Clinton’s Congregational Church and, from 1701-1707, was the first rector of the Collegiate School, which later became Yale University. The Pierson School was built in 1932 on the original site (or next to the site) of the Morgan School, a private school founded in 1870 by Charles Morgan, a New York businessman and Clinton native. On the grounds of the school are statues of Pierson and Morgan, both sculpted in 1874 by Launt Thompson.

Holy Advent Episcopal Church (1876)

Before building a church, Anglicans in Clinton meet at the Academy Building for worship. They formed an Episcopal Society in 1873 and constructed Holy Advent Episcopal Church, at 81 East Main Street, in 1876. The first public worship in the church was on the first Sunday of Advent, 1876 and opening services were on April 18, 1877. The building was consecrated on July 8, 1880, after indebtedness for the church had been paid. The church was recently restored (pdf). The exterior, which had been covered with wood shingles and painted brown, was restored to its original board-and-batten siding, painted white.

General Horatio G. Wright House (1807)

At 95 East Main Street in Clinton is a Federal-style house built in 1807 by Edward Wright, Sr. and later inherited by his eldest son, Edward Wright, Jr. His middle of three sons, born in this house, was Horatio Gouverneur Wright. He was a West Point graduate who achieved the rank of general during the Civil War. After the death of Gen. John Sedgwick (also from Connecticut) during the Overland Campaign of 1864, Gen. Wright replaced him as the 6th Corps Commander. He later led VI Corps in the Shenandoah Valley and at the Siege of Petersburg. Since 2002, the house has been the M. Sarba Fine Art Café.

The Academy, Clinton (1801)

The Academy Hall building in Clinton was built in 1801 by twenty men of the town for use as a school to prepare local students for college. The teacher lived upstairs and taught in classrooms downstairs. The Academy later passed to town ownership and continued as a school and was used for a time for town meetings. The building was remodeled in the Italianate style later in the nineteenth century. Later leased to the local Grange, the Academy is now used by the Clinton Parks and Recreation Department. (more…)