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.