UU

Former Universalist Church, Middletown (1839)

The First Universalist Society was organized in Middletown in 1829. Ten years later the Society constructed a church on Main Street at the corner of College Street (then called Parsonage Street; the building’s current address is 203-207 Main Street). Declining membership in the early twentieth century led to the sale of the building to the Odd Fellows for use as a meeting hall in 1916. The building has always had retail space on the first floor (originally the basement, as a flight of stairs led up to the church entrance from street level) and there was a conference room in the rear of the first floor. The Main Street front is currently home to Thai Gardens Restaurant.

Unitarian Universalist Church of Norwich (1910)

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Norwich began in 1820 as the “Society of United Christian Friends in the Towns of Norwich, Preston and Groton.” The Society erected a church in 1821, but did not have a settled pastor, the pulpit being occupied by temporary ministers. A church was finally organized in 1836, when the “First Universalist Society in Norwich” was established. A new brick church replaced the old one in 1841 on the same site on Main Street, facing Franklin Square. It was enlarged and rededicated in 1848. The church was demolished for the construction of the Chelsea Savings Bank. A new church, later called the Unitarian Universalist Church of Norwich, was erected in 1910 at 148 Broadway. Constructed of random granite ashlar, the church is also known as the Church of the Good Shepherd for the subject of its large stained glass window. The church’s bell, earlier located in the congregation’s Franklin Square church, was one of several bells salvaged from sacked churches after an uprising in Spain in 1833 that were shipped to New York for sale. With a dwindling congregation, the Unitarian-Universalists sold the church in 2009. It then became the Fount of Salvation Missionary Church.

Universalist Church, New London (1882)

In 1879, Universalists in New London purchased land at the corner of Green and Starr Streets (formerly the site of the Stoll Marble Yard) to construct a church. Formed in 1835, the Universalist Society had previously built a church on Huntington Street in 1843-1844, which it occupied until 1849. They then purchased a former Episcopal church on Main Street, which they later sold, holding services in Allyn Hall until their new church was ready. Constructed under the direction of builder John Bishop (a member of the church who built many houses on neighboring Starr Street) and his brother Charles, the church was completed and dedicated in 1882. It was sold to the Brainard Lodge of Masons in 1896. Since 1997 it has been the Apostolic Cathedral of Hope. The windows were closed up in 1909, but have recently been restored with modern replacements.

St. Paul’s Universalist Church (1893)

Former Unitarian Universalist Church, Meriden

A Universalist Society in Meriden was formed in 1854 and was formally organized in 1863. The Society’s first church building was constructed in 1860. This wooden structure fronted Norwood Street, but was moved to the northeast corner of Norwood and Liberty Streets when construction of a new church was begun in 1891. Completed in 1893 as St. Paul’s Universalist Church, it later became the Unitarian Universalist Church of Meriden. In 2002, with a dwindling membership and the prohibitive costs of maintaining the Richardsonian Romanesque church, the congregation sold the building to two partners who wanted to transform it into a rock and comedy club. When that project fell through, the church was put on the market again and one of its stained-glass windows, made by Louis Comfort Tiffany, was put on auction. In 2007, the church was sold to a Pentecostal congregation, the Holy Word Foundation Ministries. In 2005, alterations were completed on the Unitarian Universalist Church of Meriden‘s new home in a former house at 328 Paddock Avenue.

Unitarian Meeting House (1964)

Hartford’s Unitarian Congregational Society began in 1844 and their first church building, built in 1846, was located at the corner of Trumbull & Asylum Streets (it was later moved to the site of the current Trinity Episcopal Church). Their second building, constructed on Pratt Street in 1881, was known as Unity Hall and also served as a lecture and concert hall. Their third church was built in 1924 on Pearl Street. In 1962, the congregation sold that building and in 1964 a new meetinghouse was dedicated. Located on Bloomfield Avenue, the Meetinghouse of the Unitarian Society of Hartford was designed by Victor Lundy. It is a very modern and abstract design, whose nonidentical supporting piers rise towards the same point in the sky, represent the Unitarian principle of many paths leading to Truth.

Universalist Church of West Hartford (1931)

The First Universalist Society in the City of Hartford was formed in 1821, with its first church building being constructed on Main Street, across from the Old State House, in 1824. The congregation moved to a second building in 1860, located where the Travelers Tower now stands, and to a third building in 1906, in Hartford’s Asylim Hill neighborhood. The fourth and current church, located on Fern Street in West Hartford, was built in 1931 and was designed by Walter Crabtree in the Colonial Revival style. A large addition to the rear was constructed in 1962. Known from 1870 to the early 1960s as the Church of the Redeemer, it is now called the Universalist Church of West Hartford.