St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Southington (1892)

Episcopal services began to be held in private homes in Southington in the 1780s. The first church building was begun in 1791, but was not finished for many years. Many early members of the church were not dedicated Anglicans, but were Universalists who joined because of doctrinal disputes with the town’s Congregational church. As described by Heman R. Timlow in Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn. (1875):

It was a difficult work to build the house of worship, but it was more difficult to sustain service after it was built. It was a very plain building, and had Gothic windows to distinguish it from the “meeting house.” It stood where David P. Woodruff’s market now is. The original “proprietors” held possession of it, and for many years there were legal questions as to its rightful ownership. It was finally sold and converted into a store. In 1860 it was burned. […]

In 1828 the parish was united with that of St. Andrews, Meriden, then under the rectorship of Rev. James Keeler. Under the labors of this rector the parish gave signs of new life, it having thrown off entirely the Universalist element and established itself upon the doctrines of the Prayer Book. In 1829 the building was consecrated by Bishop Brownell. For a year or two there followed prosperity and harmony, but another secession took place in 1831 during the revivals that visited the town that year, and several of the leading members of the congregation became members of the Congregational and Baptist churches. Services were occasionally held by Rectors of adjacent parishes, and in this way a nominal existence was preserved. In 1840 the Unitarian movement absorbed most of the parish so that scarcely a remnant remained. […]

In 1862 an attempt was made to reorganize the church under the name of The Church of the Redeemer. The Rev. B. F. Cooley officiated for a year, and he was followed by Charles Allen, of Trinity College, as Lay Reader, who labored zealously for a year. The enterprise however did not succeed, and it was abandoned in 1864. Occasional services have since been held in the town by the Rev. Dr. Horton of Cheshire, and others.

In later years, the Episcopal church was again revived in Southington and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, at 145 Main Street, was built in 1892 in the Shingle style. A parish hall was added in 1899. It was considered a mission church, until becoming a “self-sustaining parish” by 1919. The church added a new parish house and classrooms in 1957.

Holy Advent Episcopal Church (1876)

Before building a church, Anglicans in Clinton meet at the Academy Building for worship. They formed an Episcopal Society in 1873 and constructed Holy Advent Episcopal Church, at 81 East Main Street, in 1876. The first public worship in the church was on the first Sunday of Advent, 1876 and opening services were on April 18, 1877. The building was consecrated on July 8, 1880, after indebtedness for the church had been paid. The church was recently restored (pdf). The exterior, which had been covered with wood shingles and painted brown, was restored to its original board-and-batten siding, painted white.

St. Peter’s-Trinity Church, Thomaston (1871)

Trinity Episcopal Church, on Main Street in Thomaston, was built in two sections in 1871 and 1880. Representing the transition from the Gothic Revival to the Stick style (with board-and-batten siding, decorative gable bargeboards and a pyramidal steeple) it was built to the designs of Richard M. Upjohn, architect of the Connecticut State Capitol Building. Trinity had begun as a mission of the Episcopal Church in Plymouth (founded in 1740) and became an independent parish in 1869. Since 1996, the church has been St. Peter’s-Trinity Church, formed through a merger of St. Peter’s Church, Plymouth and and Trinity Parish, Thomaston.

Union Episcopal Church, Riverton (1829)

The first church to be built in the village of Riverton in Barkhamsted was the Union Episcopal Church. The Gothic structure was constructed of rusticated granite in 1829-1830 under the superintendence of Jesse Ives, first keeper of the Old Riverton Inn. For about thirty years, the church was used as a museum for the Hitchcock Chair Company, whose factory was located just down the street. After closing in the 1990s, the museum sold off its collection in 2003. Two years later, the former church was sold to Peter Greenwood, a glass blower, who converted it into a studio and gallery.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Bridgeport (1868)

According to A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Volume 1 (1886), by Rev. Samuel Orcutt:

St. Paul’s Church (Episcopal), was organized June 4, 1858, at the house of William H. Noble, on Stratford avenue, and the Rev. G. S. Coit, D.D., of St. John’s Church, was chosen rector. The Sunday school met, at first, in the coal office of D. W. Thompson, near the east end of the Centre Bridge, afterwards in rooms over a store upon the corner of Crescent avenue and East Main street. The Rev. N. S. Richardson, D.D., was the first settled pastor of this parish, his ministry beginning in January, 1868. The corner-stone of St. Paul’s Church, a handsome stone building upon Kossuth street, fronting Washington Park, was laid by Bishop Williams, October 6, 1868; the edifice was dedicated and occupied for worship July 29, 1869, but not consecrated until May 18, 1880. It cost about thirty thousand dollars.

The church was designed by E.T. Littell of New York. Today, it is St. Luke’s/St. Paul’s Church. (more…)

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Litchfield (1921)

As described in History of the town of Litchfield, Connecticut (1845), by George C. Woodruff:

The members of the Church of England in this town, associated together for public worship about the year 1746, and it appears from their records that the Episcopal Society “was organized according to law, on the 26th of October, A, D. 1784.” Their first Church was erected nearly opposite the carriage manufactory of Mr. William Lord, about one mile westerly from the Court House. Their Church in the village was completed in the year 1812.

As further related in Historic Litchfield, 1721-1907 (1907), by Alice T. Bulkeley:

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church was dedicated in 1851 and is the third edifice, the first being built in 1749 about a mile west of the courthouse. The present church had a spire above the tower which was blown down in a storm a few years ago.

The current church building was erected in 1919-1921. In The Litchfield Book of Days (1900) is the following story about the earliest of these four church buildings:

When General Washington passed through Litchfield in the Revolutionary War, the soldiers, to evince their attachment to him, threw a shower of stones at the windows of the Episcopal Church. He reproved them, saying: “I am a Churchman, and wish not to see the church dishonored and desolated in this manner.”

St. James Episcopal Church, Haddam (1873)

St. James Episcopal Church is located at the intersection of Killingworth and Ponsett roads in Haddam. A Carpenter Gothic building, Saint James’s was constructed between 1871 and 1873. The church was organized by Rev. William Clark Knowles, who had begun a Sunday School in his home on Hubbard Road in 1861 and held the first service of the Ponsett Episcopal Church around 1866. For thirty-six years, Rev. Knowles served as pastor of both St. James’s and Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Killingworth. A resident of the Haddam village of Ponsett until his death in 1933, at the age of 92, Rev. Knowles was the author of By Gone Days of Ponsett, published in 1914.