Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church (1894)

Former Church of the Immaculate Conception, Park Street, Hartford

It’s Hartford Church Week on this blog! The Church of the Immaculate Conception, at 560 Park Street in Hartford, was built in 1894 to serve the many Roman Catholic immigrant factory workers who were then moving to the Frog Hollow neighborhood. The Gothic Revival church was designed by Michael O’Donohue. In 1981, a priest discovered a homeless man frozen to death near the church steps. In response, the church’s basement was opened to homeless men. Church members volunteered to cook meals and donate clothing. The parish became a leader in public outreach in Hartford. In 1990, with the number of homeless people in Hartford increasing, the Immaculate Conception Shelter & Housing Corporation (ICSHC) was formed to confront the issue. When Immaculate Conception Parish merged with St. Anne Parish in 2000, ICSHC purchased the former church property

Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, Hartford (1928)

In 1896, Father Joseph Zebris of St. Andrew Church, New Britain organized the Sons of Lithuania Society in Hartford, offering Mass for the city’s Lithuanian immigrants in a rented room on Sheldon Street. 1900, when the mission filed a report with the diocese of Hartford, is officially regarded as the inaugural year of Holy Trinity Catholic Church. In 1903, the church purchased property on Capitol Avenue which included a two-story brick building which was converted into a place of worship. This brick dwelling was moved to the back of the lot in 1913 to make room for construction of a new church. The cornerstone was blessed on October 10, 1915 and a basement chapel was ready for use by Christmas of that year. The remainder of the church was completed in 1927 and was dedicated on March 18, 1928. (more…)

St. Thomas Church, Thomaston (1908)

By the later 1860s, Academy Hall had become the place of Sunday Catholic worship in Plymouth Hollow, which later became the Town of Thomaston. St. Thomas Parish was established early in 1869 and the first resident pastor was appointed in 1871. A basement chapel opened in 1872, and the completed church was dedicated in 1876, built on land donated by Aaron Thomas, son of the clockmaker Seth Thomas. By the turn of the century, the growth of the parish led to the need for a larger church. The current church was built between 1906 and 1908 at the intersection of East Main and North Main Streets.

St. John’s Roman Catholic Church (1852) & St. John’s School (1887)

At the northern end of Main Street in Middletown is St. John’s Square, where two impressive structures, St. John’s Roman Catholic Church and St. John’s School, stand side-by-side. The church, the oldest in the Diocese of Norwich, was built in 1852, replacing an earlier brick church, constructed in 1843 by builder Barzillai Sage. The new church was built of brownstone, which was donated by the Portland quarries. Lots in the cemetery behind the church were given for free with a $20 donation to the church, which added to the building fund. The tower and spire were completed in 1864, the same year a church Rectory was built to the east of the church. Next to St. John’s Church is St. John’s Parochial School, built in 1887 and blessed in 1888. The building once had a belfry, which was replaced around 1900 with the current raised gable and cross. The church and the school are joined by an arch, which had earlier been attached on one side to the church and was then attached on the other side to the school.