St. Peter Church, Danbury (1875)

The Catholic parish of St. Peter’s in Danbury was established in 1851 at a time when many Catholic immigrants who were settling in the area. It was the first Catholic parish in northern Fairfield county and parishioners would walk ten miles from surrounding towns to attend Mass. For a few months in 1851 the parish held services in the court house, but soon acquired a former Universalist church building at the corner of Main and Wooster Streets. In the late 1850s, the parish purchased a lot on Main Street that included a former Congregational church, the church building itself being officially purchased in 1860. That church was renovated for Catholic services and used until a new church was completed. As described in James H. O’Donnell’s History of the Diocese of Hartford (1900) [St. Peter’s is now in the Diocese of Bridgeport]:

The Rev. Philip Sheridan followed Dr. [Ambrose] Manahan in 1865. Four years after his arrival he conceived the design of erecting a Gothic stone church which would not only be an architectural ornament to the town, but a temple worthy of the growing importance of the parish. To this end he removed the pastoral residence to the rear of the lot on the southwest corner of Main street, and on its site began the foundations of the new church. The soil here was sandy and humid, and great difficulty was experienced in securing a solid bed for the foundations. In some places the builders were obliged to grout to the depth of twenty-seven feet. The difficulties were overcome, however, but at an expenditure of nearly $4000. The corner-stone was laid on Sunday, August 28, 1870

Work on the church, designed in the Gothic Revival style by the architectural firm of Keely and Murphy, was delayed by the Panic of 1873, but the building, located at 119 Main Street, was dedicated on December 13, 1875.

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Courtlands (1892)

In about 1892, Mary Frances Clark Hoppin (1842–1934) built a mansion in Pomfret called Courtlands. She was the widow of Dr. Courtland Hoppin (1834–1876) of Providence, Rhode Island, and was the daughter of Joseph Washington Clark, a wealthy Boston investor, who had a summer home in Pomfret. She had earlier lived in a house she had built in Pomfret after her husband died. She later gave that home to the Pomfret School, where it is now Robinson House, the school’s admissions office. After her death, Courtlands became St. Robert’s Hall, a Jesuit monastery and seminary, dedicated in December 1935. Since 1974, the mansion and 114-acre estate have been home to the New England Laborers’ Training Academy, with an address of 37 Deerfield Road in Pomfret.

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Most Holy Trinity Church, Pomfret (1887)

The Catholic parish in Pomfret began as a mission of Sacred Heart Church in West Thompson. Services were held in Pomfret Hall before Most Holy Trinity Church was erected in 1885-1887. The church originally stood on Woodstock Road. In 1973 it was moved to its current location at 568 Pomfret Street, at the intersection of Deerfield Road. A house already standing at the new property, built c. 1800 and remodeled in the Colonial Revival style c. 1890, became the church’s rectory.

Igreja Adventista do Sétimo Dia (1883)

Built in 1883, the church at 239 Greenwood Avenue in Bethel was St. Mary’s Catholic Church for 109 years. The following excerpts are taken from the History of the Diocese of Hartford (1900), by James H. O’Donnell,

The Rev. M. P. Lawlor was the celebrant of the first Mass said in Bethel. The historic event took place on January 8, 1882, in the Town Hall, in the presence of about 400 persons. In the spring of the same year the congregation secured Fisher’s Hall, in which Mass was said until the church was completed. Before this year the Catholics of Bethel attended Mass at St. Peter’s church, Danbury. [p. 264]

In 1881, it was determined to separate the Catholics of Bethel and Grassy Plain district from the mother church at Danbury. Accordingly, a building committee, comprising Thomas Doran, Michael Brauneis and Owen Murray, was appointed, and the work of securing funds for the erection of a new church was auspiciously and successfully carried on. Sufficient money having been collected to guarantee beginning the work, the construction of the church was entered upon with vigor and enthusiasm. The corner-stone was laid on Sunday, September 17, 1882, by Bishop McMahon. [p.265]

In April, 1883, Bethel was separated from the jurisdiction of Danbury and organized into a separate parish, with the Rev. M. Byrne as the first pastor. Father Byrne died after a successful, though brief, pastorate. The main altar of St. Mary’s church was donated by his mother as a memorial of her son. [p. 264]

The ceremony of dedication took place on Sunday, September 16, 1883, Father Byrne, being pastor. Bishop McMahon officiated. [. . .] The church is a brick edifice, Gothic in style with the tower on the side. It is 49 x 88 feet. The basement wall is granite, and the roof imitation clerestory. All the windows are of beautiful stained glass and bear the names of the donors. The distance from the ground to the top of the cross is 138 feet. The seating capacity of the church is 475. [p.265]

The Rev. Patrick O’Connell succeeded Father Byrne in November, 1883. His period of service was fifteen years. Evidences of his sacerdotal zeal are everywhere visible. The works that signalized his administration were the purchase of the rectory and lot on which it stands, and a cemetery on the line of the Danbury and Norwalk railroad. He furnished the church with a pipe organ and a bell for the tower; erected three sets of granite steps for the entrances of the church; built an expensive property line wall, laid the concrete walks, and graded and beautified the grounds—works which bear testimony to his activity and to the generosity of the parishioners. [p. 264]

In 1992, St. Mary’s moved to a new church on Dodgingtown Road and the building on Greenwood Avenue was sold to the Church of Bethel. It was sold again in 2011 to the Danbury Luso-Brasileira Seventh Day Adventist Church.

St. Joseph Church, Danbury (1905)

The first Catholic services in Danbury took place in 1845. Saint Peter’s Catholic Church was eventually built on Main Street in the 1870s. In the History of the Diocese of Hartford, published in 1900, Rev. James H. O’Donnell wrote

We have seen that at the time of the first Mass the number of Catholics in Danbury did not exceed 70. The present Catholic population is 6,000 souls, divided into 5,000 Irish and their descendants, and 1,000 of mixed nationalities, Germans, Italians, Hungarians, French, Poles and Slavs.

The Catholic population had grown to an extent that a second Catholic Church was needed. A new parish was established in 1905, followed by the erection of Saint Joseph Church, located at 8 Robinson Avenue, facing Main Street. The Romanesque Revival-style church was designed by Dwyer and McMahon of Hartford.

The parish’s first pastor was Rev. John D. Kennedy, who was also chaplain of the Emmett Club, named after the Irish nationalist Robert Emmett, who led an abortive rebellion against British rule and was executed in 1803. The Emmett Club was the local chapter of Clan na Gael, an Irish republican organization that supported the island’s independence from Britain.

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Sacred Heart Catholic Church (1897)

Happy Easter! Sacred Heart Catholic Church, located at 66 Cottage Street in East Berlin, was erected in 1896-1897. At the time, the Catholic population of East Berlin was expanding rapidly, in large part owing to the growth of the Berlin Iron Bridge Company, which required an enlarged labor force. Land for the church was secured on August 12, 1896 for $400 and the cornerstone was laid by Bishop Michael Tierney on November 8, 1896. The plans were drawn by architect Joseph A. Jackson of Water­bury and the building contract was awarded to R.O. Clark of East Berlin. The project was warmly encouraged and supported by the Berlin Bridge Company, whose president, Charles M. Jarvis, contributed $300 toward the construction. The structure was completed at a cost of $7,300. Sacred Heart Church was dedicated on Sunday, May 30, 1897. The church became a full parish in 1967. On March 1, 2017, Sacred Heart Church merged with St. Paul Church in Kensington to form a new St. Paul’s Parish. (more…)

St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, Winsted (1916)

The early history of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Winsted is related in The History of the Diocese of Hartford (1900), by Rev. James H. O’Donnell:

The first Mass said in Winsted, or, as it was then called, Clifton, was offered by the Rev. James Lynch, of Birmingham, in the west district school-house, in 1851, in the presence of about forty persons. An old resident, however, is authority for the statement that the first Mass was said in 1850 by a Father Tucker. One who was present at Father Lynch’s Mass, Mrs. Gabriel Grinnan, is still living, and has vivid recollections of the same. Mr. Peter Dardis came to Winsted in 1849. At that time, he says, there were about twelve Catholic families here. In 1851 land was purchased for a church. In 1852 the Rev. Thomas Quinn entered upon his duties as the first resident pastor of Winsted. Soon after his arrival he began the erection of the church, the corner-stone of which was laid in 1853. Until the church was ready for occupancy, divine services were held in Camp’s Hall. In 1853 Father Quinn was succeeded by the Rev. Philip Gillick, who came from the diocese of New York. He completed the church, in the basement of which he took up his residence.

Two later pastors served as chaplains in the Civil War:

Daniel Mullen was appointed pastor in 1860, but at the outbreak of the Civil War he resigned to accept the office of chaplain of the Ninth Connecticut Volunteers. “Father Mullen was a man of literary culture,” says the Annals of Winchester, “and earnest patriotism, who served at Baton Rouge and Chackaloo Station, La., and Deep Bottom, Va. He was compelled by ill health to resign on the 26th of August, 1862.” Father Mullen’s successor was the Rev. Philip Sheridan, who a few years later was followed by Rev. Father Leo da Saracena, O.S.F., who had taken Father Mullen’s place as chaplain of the Ninth Regiment.

Since that time, the parish has continued in the care of the Franciscan Friars of the Province of the Immaculate Conception, which began with a band of four friars from Italy who arrived in New York City in 1855. A monastery for the friars in Winsted was constructed in 1866. The cornerstone of the current St. Joseph Church was blessed on August 30, 1914 and the completed building, located at 31 Oak Street in Winsted, was dedicated on July 16, 1916. The 1853 church building was converted into a parish hall.