Whitneyville Congregational Church (1834)

The Whitneyville Congregational Church was built in 1834 in the manufacturing village of Whitneyville, in Hamden. The congregation began as the East Plains Congregational Church in 1795. It’s original meetinghouse on Dixwell Avenue was replaced by a new church, built after much debate, in a new location, next to the Cheshire Turnpike (now Whitney Avenue), on land donated by the widow of Eli Whitney. The Greek Revival structure was inspired by the designs of architect Ithiel Town. The church was enlarged by Rufus G. Russell, a former assistant of Henry Austin, with a pulpit recess in 1867. The dome atop the steeple was added by the end of the nineteenth century.