Faith Congregational Church (housed in what was formerly Windsor Avenue Congregational Church) is a historic church at 2030 Main Street in
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
. The brick
Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...
-style church building, completed in 1872, now houses Faith Congregational Church, whose lineage includes the city's oldest
African-American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
congregation, established in 1819. The church is a stop on the Connecticut Freedom Trail and was listed on the United States
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1993.
Architecture and building history
Faith Congregational Church is located in Hartford's Clay-Arsenal neighborhood, on the east side of Main Street midway between Pavilion and Battles Streets. It is a two-story masonry structure, built out of red brick with black brick trim in a roughly cruciform plan. It has a long main gable, with a projecting apse-like bay on one side and a gabled bay on the other. At the left corner between the main roof and bay a buttressed square tower rises to a steeple and spire. The main facade is dominated by the gable end and entrance, which is set under a gabled projection in a slightly recessed two-story round-arch panel. Above the doorway are three round-arch windows.
[
The building was designed by Boston architect ]Samuel J. F. Thayer
Samuel J.F. Thayer (1842–1893) was an American architect, notable for designing buildings such as the Providence City Hall and the Cathedral of St. George Historic District, Cathedral of St. George, as well as the town halls of Brookline, Massa ...
and built in 1871–72. The Windsor Avenue Congregation (named for what North Main Street was originally called) grew out of a Sunday school that was organized in 1864 at Wooster and Pavilion Streets. The Windsor Avenue congregation was formally founded in 1869, and its first minister settled in 1871. That congregation also built the adjacent parish house in 1904 to a design by Isaac A. Allen Jr. In 1904 it merged with another congregation to form the Horace Bushnell Congregational Church, which meets in the former Fourth Congregational Church
The Fourth Congregational Church, also known historically as the Horace Bushnell Congregational Church and now as the Liberty Christian Center International, is a historic church at Albany Avenue and Vine Street in Hartford, Connecticut. The chu ...
building at Albany and Vine Streets.[
]
See also
*
References
*Connecticut Historical Commission; ''The Connecticut Freedom Trail'' © 1999.
External links
Church websiteConnecticut Freedom Trail
{{Authority control
United Church of Christ churches in Connecticut
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
Churches in Hartford, Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in Hartford, Connecticut