Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Episcopal

Trinity Episcopal Church, Bristol (1949)

Episcopalians in Bristol separated from the dominant Congregational church in 1747. They built a church in 1754, located on the site of the later Thomas H. Patterson School (now Patterson Place Apartments). This early church closed during the Revolutionary War in the face of strong anti-Loyalist feeling. After the war, the dilapidated church was sold to be used as a barn (it later burned in a fire). A new Episcopal church, called Trinity Church, was built in 1834 on Maple Street. This building was sold and moved to Forestville to become the a Methodist Church. It was later destroyed in a fire. The next Trinity Church building was constructed on Main Street in 1862. It was moved around the corner to High Street, across from the Bristol Public Library, in 1889. When this church was destroyed by fire in 1945, Dudley S. Ingraham donated land on Summer Street–the site of a house that had been destroyed by fire–for a new Trinity Church, which was dedicated on Easter Day, 1949. The church’s rose window, facing Summer Street, was given by Ingraham in memory of his son, Dudley, Jr., who was killed in action during World War II. The church’s tower and parish house were added in 1954. At the start of the twenty-first century, Trinity Episcopal Church became one of the “Connecticut Six,” a group of Episcopal churches whose orthodox beliefs conflict with those of the state’s Episcopal hierarchy. Threatened with a lawsuit by the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, the congregation vacated the church building on Summer Street in 2008 and became Holy Trinity Anglican Church, affiliated with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a mission of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Enfield (1863)

The church at 383 Hazard Avenue in Hazardville in Enfield was built as St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in 1863. Its erection was funded by Colonel Augustus G. Hazard, the gunpowder manufacturer who had founded Hazardville. In 1992, three Episcopal parishes, St. Mary’s Church, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Thompsonville and Calvary Episcopal Church of Suffield, began cooperating as a regional ministry of parishes. In 2007, the three parishes merged to form Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, whose home is the former St. Mary’s Church.

Woodward Chapel (1924)

The earliest Episcopal church building in Westbury (now Watertown) was built in 1765. Called Christ Church, it was replaced by a new church in 1794 and then by a third building, located on the street called The Green, built in 1854-1855. That church was replaced on the same site by a new edifice, which still stands today, built in 1924 and designed by Allen & Collens to resemble an English parish church. The church was expanded in 1960 with the addition of a wing for a parish hall. In 2003, Christ Church became one of the “Connecticut Six,” parishes that clashed with Connecticut Bishop Andrew D. Smith over support for the naming of V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay Episcopal priest, as New Hampshire’s bishop. In 2007, the entire congregation severed its ties with the national Episcopal Church and left its church on The Green to become New Hope Anglican Church. In 2010 the former Christ Church was purchased by the nearby Taft School and was renamed Woodward Chapel.

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, East Haddam (1890)

An Episcopal Society in East Haddam was formed in 1791 by members of the First Congregational Church, who perhaps left that congregation because of plans to build a new meeting house too far from the Connecticut River landings. In 1795, the Society built the first St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on a hill overlooking the East Haddam river landings. The current church building, at 31 Main Street, was consecrated in 1890. It was built on land offered to the church by Judge Julius Attwood. The church was constructed in an eclectic Victorian mode in which the Shingle style predominates. The church’s bell, acquired in 1834-1835, came from a Spanish monastery and bears an inscription with the date 815. After the congregation moved to the current church, the bell sat on a wall near the church until a bell tower was completed in 1904.

St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Thompsonville (1859)

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, at 28 Prospect Street in Thompsonville, Enfield, was built in 1859. According to the Memorial History of Hartford County, Vol. II (1886): “The Episcopal Church of Thompsonville was organized as a mission in 1851, and as St. Andrew’s Parish in 1855, and is gathering to itself an increasing number of adherents.” St. Andrew’s Church merged with two other Episcopal parishes in 2007. The former St. Andrew’s Church is now Amazing Grace Church.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Fairfield (1856)

A group of Fairfield Episcopalians met in 1853 to form what became St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The church was built in 1855-1856 on what had been the previous site of two successive Fairfield County jails (the first was burnt by the British in 1779 and the second by a prisoner in 1852). The church expanded several times: in 1891 the parish built an addition for its Sunday school and Women’s Auxiliary and in 1928 started a project that produced a transept, expanded the chancel, added a chapel adjoining the chancel and built what is now the parish hall. A new wing, dedicated in 1959, was built on land where the Old Academy had stood (it was moved to its current location on the Green in 1958).

St. James’ Episcopal Church, Glastonbury (1859)

St. James’ Episcopal Church was established in North Glastonbury in 1857 and the church at 2584 Main Street was built in 1859. The interior was gutted by fire in 1904, but the church was able to reopen for services within one year. The building was enlarged in 1965 and in 1978 a parcel of town redevelopment land was purchased to become a parking lot and major repairs were made to the church and parish house (the latter built in 1956). (more…)