Westminster Congregational Church (1770)

Faced with the long jorney from the western section of Canterbury to the Congregational church in the eastern part of town, outlying residents established the Second Congregational Church of Canterbury, called the Westminster Society, in 1769. A meetinghouse was soon built in 1769-1770, on land donated by John Parks for the Society for a community green, church and cemetery. Around 1840, the Westminster Congregational Church was significantly altered: originally facing east, it was rotated to face south and was remodeled in the Greek Revival style. During the hurricane of 1938, the church’s bell toppled out of the belfry and cracked. The church is therefore known as “the church of the broken bell.”

Montville Center Congregational Church (1847)

In 1722, the North Parish of New London, later to become the Town of Montville, was established and a meeting house for the congregation was soon built near the center of the parish. In 1772, a new meeting house was constructed at a new location, at the corner of Raymond Hill Road and Meetinghouse Lane. As described in the History of Montville (1896), compiled by Henry A. Baker:

On the 25th day of May, 1823, while the congregation was engaged in worship on the Sabbath, the house was struck by lightning, the fluid entering by the spire on the north porch and following down the posts of the porch and running along the timbers of the house in all directions, shivering timbers and casements, scattering splinters and broken fragments of ceilings throughout the entire building. Two persons were instantly killed, Mrs. Betsey Bradford, wife of Perez Bradford, and a child of John R. Comstock. Many were shocked and a general consternation seized the awe-stricken assembly.

The building being very much damaged, it was soon after repaired, the upper portion of the north porch was taken off and was finished up at the same height with the south porch. This house stood until the year 1847, when it was taken down and the present house of worship erected on the site, at a cost of $2,000. Sherwood Raymond, Esq., gave $500 toward the building of the house, and the balance was made up by subscriptions varying from $200 to $25. Its size is fifty feet in length and thirty-five feet in width, with twenty-feet posts. In the year 1860 the bell was placed in the belfry, it being obtained through the efforts of Rev. Hiram C. Hayan, then acting pastor of the church.

By the 1990s, the congregation had moved to a new church building and sought to sell the old 1847 Montville Center Congregational Church, but it was found that the church‘s deed restricted its sale to a private property owner. The Town of Montville has now sought to purchase the church to turn it into a museum or community center.

First Congregational Church of Granby (1834)

The origins of Granby’s First Congregational Church go back to 1736, when Granby was still a part of Simsbury. According to The Memorial History of Hartford County (1886), early meetings “were held for a time in the house of Daniel Hays, which was also used as a tavern.” The North West or Salmon Brook Ecclesiastical Society was established in 1739. According to Noah A. Phelps’s History of Simsbury, Granby, and Canton (1845):

it appears, that their first meeting was held in May 1739. It was convened to adopt measures in reference to the construction of a meeting–house. But, as the meeting could not agree where to set the house, application was made to the General Assembly for a committee to settle the question. On report of the committee, the site established was on the hill north of Salmon brook village. The first meeting-house was erected at this place in 1740. It’s dimensions were, thirty by forty-five feet.

In the course of a few years, by the extension of population westwardly, the house was left so far from the centre of population as to cause complaint, and induce a majority of the society to adopt measures for its removal. Their efforts were successful. In 1775 the house was taken down and removed about two miles in a north-westvvardly direction, to a place designated by a committee appointed by the County Court, where it was re-built. In 1793 the house was enlarged and painted inside. This house was taken down, and a new one erected in 1834. The new house stands a few rods northerly from the site of the old one. It is a commodious building, sixty by forty feet, is painted and has a tower and bell.

First Church of Christ Congregational, Unionville (1886)

As described by David N. Camp in his History of New Britain, with sketches of Farmington and Berlin, Connecticut (1889):

The people from Unionville, or Union District, Farmington, as it was termed, were, for many years, accustomed to attend church services at Farmington, or at West Avon. After the canal was opened the trip to the mother church at Farmington, for a portion of the year, was made by boat. Religious meetings had been held in Unionville for some time, but the church was not organized until March 30,1841 […] The first house of worship was erected on the park, and in 1852 was removed and enlarged. But the congregation becoming too large for this building, a handsome stone edifice was erected, which, with the organ, cost $44,000, and was dedicated May 27, 1886.

In the 1950s, a modern addition was built onto the front of the First Church of Christ Congregational.

First United Church of Christ Congregational, Milford (1824)

The First Church of Christ in Milford was established in New Haven in 1639 by a group of settlers led by Rev. Peter Prudden. They had already acquired land in Wepawaug, where they would shortly settle and establish the new parish and colony of Milford. The first meeting house was built in 1641 and was replaced by a second structure in 1727-1728. The current church, was built in 1824. Designed by David Hoadley, it has similarities to two earlier churches he designed: United Church on the Green in New Haven and Avon Congregational Church. A division in church membership during the Great Awakening in 1741 led to the errection of the Second Church (Plymouth Church). The two churches reunited in 1961 as the First United Church of Christ (Congregational).

Mount Carmel Congregational Church (1840)

Mount Carmel Congregational Church is located on Whitney Avenue, in the Mount Carmel neighborhood of Hamden. The parish, established in 1758, had previously worshiped in a meetinghouse which stood a little north of the current church. That building was first used in 1761, but was not fully completed until after the Revolution. After it burned down, the present Greek Revival-style church was constructed in 1840, after several years of debate on where to build it.

Centerbrook Congregational Church (1790)

Potapoug Quarter, originally part of Saybrook, established its own church, Saybrook’s Second Ecclesiastical Society, in 1722 in the area of Center Saybrook, now called Centerbrook. A church, built in 1724, was renovated in 1757. The current Centerbrook Congregational Church was built in 1790-1792 and the old building was sold to Capt. Benjamin Williams and moved to the Williams family’s wharf. In 1839, the current church underwent major renovations, including the construction of a new steeple and the rotation of the originally west-facing building to face south. The adjacent Essex Borough established a separate Congregational church in 1851; the following year became part of the new town of Old Saybrook; and in 1854 became a separate town of Essex. In 1859, Centerbrook, with its much earlier church, and West Centerbrook (Ivoryton) became part of the town of Essex.