Former Colchester Baptist Church (1836)

Before Colchester’s Baptist Church joined with the town’s Congregational Church to form the Colchester Federated Church in 1949, the Baptists worshiped in an 1836 church building, which is still standing at 168 South Main Street. The original steeple was destroyed in the 1938 hurricane and was replaced by the current shortened steeple. The congregation decided to sell the church due to their having a diminishing congregation by the 1940s. The church was sold to Nathan and Israel Liverant, who opened an antiques businesses in the old church and converted it to commercial use. The entrance originally featured a central window flanked by two entry doors, but now has a central door with bow windows on either side. Nathan Liverant and Son Antiques continues to occupy the building today.

First Baptist Church of West Hartford (1938)

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The First Baptist Church of West Hartford was established in 1858 and a meeting house was built in 1858-1859 on the north-west corner of Main Street and Farmington Avenue, just around the corner from the no-longer extant third meeting house of the town’s Congregational Church. By the early twentieth century there were great commercial pressures on the church to sell their property. In 1938, a new church was built not far away on North Main Street. The new building was modeled on the Greek Revival 1858 church and has the same stone steps, cornerstone, bell and weathervane, which were salvaged from the old building.

Colchester Federated Church (1842)

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Colchester’s First Ecclesiastical Society was formed in 1706 and a meeting house built on Old Hebron Road. The second meeting house was built in 1714 and the third in 1771. Needing repairs, the third meeting house was pulled down and replaced with the current Congregational church, built in 1841-1842. The church was renovated with a Victorian interior and stained glass windows in 1885, but was remodeled to its current appearance in 1929. The church’s steeple, like a number of others in Connecticut, had to be replaced after the 1938 hurricane. A Baptist church was built on South Main Street in Colchester in 1835-1836. In 1949, the Colchester Federated Church was established, combining the First Congregational and Baptist Churches. The Congregational church was now the united place of worship and the old Baptist church building was sold.

Union Baptist Church, Mystic (1829)

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Located prominently on Baptist Hill in Mystic is the Union Baptist Church, which is actually two different church buildings that were eventually combined. The origins of the church date back to 1764, with revival services held in Groton in 1764 during the Great Awakening. Groton’s Second Baptist Church was established the following year in Fort Hill. By 1825, the village of West Mystic in Groton was being developed. According to Groton, Conn. 1705-1905, by Charles Rathbone Stark, “The need of better facilities for those on the banks of the Mystic River led a number of public-spirited men to build a house to be used for the benefit of all denominations, the pastors of the various churches rotating in occupancy of its pulpit. The house was built in 1829 and by reason of the large number of sea-faring men contributing to its erection it was called the Mariners Free Church.” The architect of the new church was Deacon Erastus Gallup of Ledyard. Over time, the other denominations built their own churches in Mystic, leaving the Third Baptist Church, founded in 1831 by members of the First Baptist Church, the only group still occupying the Mariners’ Church. Meanwhile, the Second Baptist Church had moved from Fort Hill to Mystic, building a church on High Street in 1845. In 1861, the Second and Third Churches joined to form Union Baptist Church. The Second Church’s building was moved up High Street and joined to the rear of the former Mariners’ Church. The original steeple was lost during the Hurricane of 1938 and the Church was without a steeple until a new one, with a carillon, was built in 1969.

Union Baptist Church, Hartford (1871)

Union Baptist Church is one of the oldest black congregations in Hartford. In 1889, there was a split in church’s membership and, although both groups wished to retain the name of Union Baptist Church, one group had already claimed a charter before the other group arrived, so the latter group established itself as Shiloh Baptist Church. The English Gothic building which is today Union Baptist Church, at 1921 Main Street in the city’s North End, was built in 1871 and was originally the Memorial Church of St. Thomas, an Episcopal church built in honor of Bishop Thomas Church Brownell, the founder of Trinity College. By the 1920s, St. Thomas Church was facing diminishing attendance. St. Monica’s, a black Episcopal congregation, which had been meeting in a dilapidated church formerly used by Shiloh Baptist Church, was allowed to use the Parish Hall of St. Thomas Church. Eventually, in 1925, the church was offered to Union Baptist Church and St. Monica’s congregation moved to a smaller church, on Mather Street, which Union Baptist had erected in 1908 and was now vacating.

Leaders and members of Union Baptist Church made important contributions to the early civil rights movement: the Reverend John C. Jackson, who who became pastor in 1922, worked to open employment opportunities for African Americans and in 1943 helped establish the Connecticut Inter-Racial Commission, now the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. C. Edythe Taylor, a member of the church, was the first African American teacher in the Hartford public school system. The Union Baptist Church is on the Connecticut Freedom Trail. (more…)

First Baptist Church in Essex (1845)

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The Baptist Church in Essex was founded in 1811. The congregation’s first church was a brick building, built in 1817, which stood across Prospect Street from Hill’s Academy. In 1845, a new church was built, adjacent to the Academy on Baptist Hill. Constructed by master builder Jeremish Gladding, the Baptist Church was designed in the Egyptian Revival style, modeled on an 1844 Presbyterian church, the Old Whaler’s Church in Sag Harbor, Long Island, designed by Minard Lafever. Both of these buildings are interesting examples of a style not often used for churches in America. The church’s original steeple was destroyed after being struck by lightning in 1925. It was replaced by the current steeple, a Colonial Revival structure which features a gold dome and a variation on a ‘Widow’s Walk” below.