The congregation of Pleasant Valley Methodist Church formed in 1838 and met in members’ homes until the church was built in 1846-1848. A Greek Revival building, it is located on Route 181 in Pleasant Valley, Barkhamsted. Additions to the church were built in 1899 and 1992.
Happy Easter!!! The original meeting house of Durham’s Congregational church stood on the northeast corner of the town Green from 1736 to 1835. When it was decided to replace the old building, there was a struggle in town between those to the south, who wanted the new church to be built near the Green, and those to the north, who wanted it to be built north of Allyn Brook. It was eventually built near the Green, but those living south of Allyn Brook made a larger contribution to its construction. On Thanksgiving Day, 1844, the new building burned down (a suspected case of arson). Those on the north side now succeeded in having the new church built on their side of the brook while south siders paid nothing and were even compensated for their expense for the previous building. The new North Congregational Church was dedicated in June, 1847, but the dispute was not over: that same year 67 members left the church and formed a separate South Congregational Church. The two congregations united again in 1886 and the South Church became Durham’s Town Hall. In 1941 the Congregational and Methodist Churches joined to form the United Churches of Durham.
The Moosup United Methodist Church is at 13 South Main Street in Plainfield. As related in the Plainfield Bicentennial, A Souvenir Volume (1899):
The Methodist Episcopal Church in Plainfield began its history in 1825, when it was included in the Norwich circuit, though, before 1800, preachers were sent here and occasional services were held. At first, the church met in the old Separate meeting-house on the corner near Evergreen cemetery for occasional services […] [A revival occurred in 1843 and] That same year they purchased of the Separatists, or their successors, the old meeting-house which had been removed to Union Village. A new church was built in 1871, a little further up the river and was dedicated, February 1, 1872.
As related in Vol II of the Souvenir history of the New England Southern Conference (1897):
The church in which the people now worship is in the very centre of the village, and pleasantly situated. It was built in 1870 by the arduous labors of Rev. Lewis E. Dunham, and marked a new era in the prosperity of the society. In 1882, during the pastorate of E. J. Ayres, the building was raised, and a vestry provided in the basement. The interior of the church has recently (1896) been thoroughly repaired, a steel ceiling and chancel introduced, making it a most attractive and inviting place of worship. The parsonage, one of the most convenient and commodious, stands on the lot adjoining the church. It was built during the pastorate of the Rev. W. W. Ellis of sainted memory.
The church was completely remodeled and rededicated in 1908.
Copper Hill United Methodist Church is located at 27 Copper Hill Road in East Granby. As related by Charles Horace Clarke in The Memorial History of Hartford County:
The Methodist church at Copper Hill was built in 1839, and in 1850 was thoroughly repaired, and moved about five rods westward. Like all Methodist churches, it has had regular changes of pastor. In the ministry of Lemuel Richardson, in 1871, there was an extensive revival of religion, attended with remarkable manifestations. The writer, at a single evening meeting in the church, which lasted from seven o’clock until midnight, witnessed as many as fifteen persons who became apparently unconscious. Some were stretched upon the floor; others were lying or being supported upon the seats. This visitation of “the Spirit” was regarded as a great blessing, and it certainly did strengthen the church in numbers. Mr. Richardson was a large, powerful man, full of strength, zeal, and boldness, and possessed of a strong, loud voice, which he used in singing as well as in preaching and prayer.
The building at 26 Park Place in Rockville in Vernon, which now serves as a Senior Center, was originally dedicated in 1867 as a Methodist Episcopal Church. As related in William T. Cogswell’s History of Rockville (1872):
During the years from 1850 to 1860, the Methodist[s] built a comfortable meetinghouse in West street. This house took fire and burned on a Sabbath morning. The German Lutheran Church was a Baptist Church till after the Methodist Church burned. It was bought and occupied by the Methodist society up to the time of building the present Methodist Episcopal Church.
According to A Century of Vernon, Connecticut, 1808-1908, published in 1911:
The first service in the vestry of the new church was held on June 16, 1867. It was a love feast. The bell was raised to its place in the tower June 28, 1867. The vestry was inadequate to accommodate the congregations and the audience room of the church was dedicated on Tuesday, November 26, 1867, Bishop Simpson preaching the sermon.
The church was built in what was then a rapidly developing commercial area and the first floor originally contained the People’s Savings Bank. As further related in A Century of Vernon:
From the time that Messrs. White and Corbin took the front basement rooms of the church, long used as banks, it was the intention of those gentlemen that this property should revert to the trustees of the church. When Cyrus White died this had not been attended to and Lewis A. Corbin bought the banks. The subject was frequently mentioned by pastors and others, but it was not until the pastorate of Rev. W. J. Yates that it was definitely arranged. Then Mr. Corbin executed deeds which are duly recorded, conveying the banks to the trustees. He reserved the income during his life. Then a portion was reserved for a fund for contingencies, but at last all the income goes to the trustees. Certain annual contributions to benevolent interests are provided for and the balance may be used for the current expenses of the church.
The former church no longer has its original two steeples.
The church at the corner of Barnum and Noble avenues (235 Barnum Avenue) in Bridgeport was built in 1883 as the Washington Park Methodist Episcopal Church. The brick Gothic church with elaborate terra cotta trim was designed by Lawrence B. Valk of New York. Organized in 1853, Park Church was the first church in East Bridgeport. Today, the building is Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church. This parish was founded in 1950 and, the following year, acquired a church building and rectory on Grant Street. An adjoining building was purchased in 1958 to become the parish school, but in 1966, the parish was notified by the state that their property was required for the building of a hospital. In 1970, therefore, the parishioners voted to purchase the former Methodist church on Barnum Avenue to become their new home.
Coventry was the birthplace of Lorenzo Dow (1777-1834), the famous itinerant Methodist preacher and major figure of the Second Great Awakening. The earliest records of a Methodist Society in town date to 1822, but there were no doubt Methodist meetings in town before then. The town’s first Methodist church was built in the 1840s, in what is now Patriot’s Park. In 1867, it was replaced with a new Italianate-style church, erected on Main Street in South Coventry. The church lost its steeple in the 1938 hurricane and it was never replaced. By 1944, membership in the church had dwindled such that the remaining parishioners could no longer maintain the building. In 1949, they merged with the Bolton Methodist Church. The former Coventry Methodist Church was used for a number of years as a community house for meetings and gatherings and in the 1990s contained antiques stores. In 2003, it was refurbished as retail space.
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