Church

Former St. Casimir’s Church // 1872

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Built in 1872, this Victorian Gothic style church on Greene Street in the Wooster Square area of New Haven, Connecticut, has had a varied history that tells the full story of its neighborhood. The church was originally constructed as the Davenport Congregational Church and was designed by New Haven architect, Rufus G. Russell, who formerly worked many years for Henry Austin, the city’s leading architect, before opening his own firm. In the early 20th century, the neighborhood demographics shifted to a more diverse area of recently arriving immigrants who worked in nearby industry and the edifice was occupied by an Italian Baptist church. 1927, the church was purchased by a local Lithuanian congregation, who re-established the building as the St. Casimir Catholic Church. For nearly 100 years, the church remained an active use anchoring the iconic Wooster Square park until the congregation closed, leaving the building’s fate unclear. Luckily, developers purchased the property, which is located within a local historic district, and converted the church into residential units.

Trinity Episcopal Church of Wrentham // 1872

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Overlooking the Town Green in Wrentham, Massachusetts, the Trinity Episcopal Church of Wrentham stands as the town’s finest example of Victorian Gothic architecture and the community’s oldest Episcopal church. Episcopalians in Wrentham first began worshipping in 1863 and in less than ten years, quickly grew in numbers from just two members to so many that a church building was needed to house the congregation. The site on East Street was purchased and architect, Shepard S. Woodcock, was hired to furnish plans for the new building. Completed in 1872, the Victorian Gothic design features all of the hallmarks of the style, including the steeply pitched roof, pointed arch windows and entry doors, buttresses, and towering steeple.

Wrentham Congregational Church // 1834

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The Wrentham Congregational Church is the oldest house of worship in the suburban community, and the fourth consecutive meetinghouse for the congregation at the town center that was originally established in 1692. The frontier town grew slowly as a largely agricultural community and three houses of worship were built nearby the town common until 1833, when it was decided that a church worthy of its historic congregation be built. It is not clear who designed the Greek Revival church, but timbers were transported to town in 1834 for the new edifice which was completed that year. Over the following century, the church was expanded and modernized, all-the-while retaining its historic character. The four-stage steeple toppled during the New England Hurricane of 1938, and was rebuilt. The congregation remains active in the community and is a visual landmark at the town center.

Hopedale Unitarian Church // 1898

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The Hopedale Unitarian Church, also known as the Draper Memorial Church, is located in the former industrial village of Hopedale, Massachusetts, and is one of the finest examples of the Neo-Gothic style in the state. The church was funded by brothers George Albert and Eben S. Draper of the Draper Corporation, the largest employer in town, offering to build the new edifice as a memorial to their parents, George and Hannah Draper. The church replaced an earlier, wood-frame church, built on the site in 1860 by supporters of Adin Ballou, a founder of the Hopedale Community, a utopian community that eventually failed. The Drapers hired Boston architect, Edwin J. Lewis, an active Unitarian who had designed several churches around New England by this time. His plan was “English Gothic of the Perpendicular period” made of Milford granite with Indiana limestone trimmings and a roof of green slate. At the interior, roof trusses were left exposed “as in the old English Parish churches” with oak finishes and flooring and memorial stained glass windows by prominent artists. The church remains a visual and historical landmark for the community with an active congregation who preserve the significant building.

First Methodist Church of Warren // 1844

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Located next door to the diminutive Easterbrooks Cottage on Church Street, the First Methodist Church of Warren, Rhode Island, stands as one of the community’s great 19th century buildings. Constructed in 1844 with its iconic steeple completed a year later, the Methodist Church is a great example of a vernacular, Greek Revival style with prominent, south-facing portico with four two-story Doric columns supporting the entablature and pediment above. Built by Perez Mason (1802-1881), a carpenter and later amateur architect, the church stands out for its iconic five-stage steeple, which has long served as a sort of landmark for sailors arriving into the harbor nearby.

Church of the Advent // 1878

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The Church of the Advent in Beacon Hill, Boston, is a landmark example of a church designed in the Victorian Gothic style with strong English influence. The congregation, established in 1844, purchased a large corner lot at Brimmer and Mount Vernon streets on the newly made filled land west of Charles Street in Beacon Hill Flat, to construct their new church. In 1875, John Hubbard Sturgis, a Boston architect and parishioner, began designing the red brick with sandstone-trimmed church set on a corner lot with dominant corner tower and octagonal steeple. Construction began in phases beginning in 1878 and took years until the steeple was completed in 1888. Before its completion, John H. Sturgis died and his nephew, Richard Clipston Sturgis, oversaw the completion of the church, which became somewhat of a memorial to his late uncle. Following the completion of the Church of the Advent, Sturgis’ widow, extended family and clients donated a major portion of the interior art, stained glass windows, and furnishings. The polychromatic exterior in red and charred brick mixed with sandstone trim appears to have been inspired by his designs for the original Boston Museum of Fine Arts (1876, demolished in 1911.) The Church of the Advent in Boston is one of the finest ecclesiastical buildings in New England and is the master-work of one of America’s great architects.

St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church, Brookline Village // 1880

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St. Mary of the Assumption church was the first Catholic Church established in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1852 when a congregation of Catholics began to congregate to worship together at the old Lyceum Hall. The congregation primarily consisted of Irish immigrants who settled in Brookline, where they often found work at the many large estates and building the new branch railroad in town, but desired a true house of worship close to their homes. By 1853, a modest wood-frame Gothic Revival style church was built in the Village, but was quickly outgrown. In 1873, the pastor of the congregation, Irish-born Rev. Lawrence Morris (1845-1900) began purchasing land at the corner of Harvard Street and Linden Place to establish a new church, large enough to comfortably fit the congregation and various church-related buildings. In 1880, the firm of Peabody & Stearns was hired to furnish plans for the Victorian Gothic edifice in brick and brownstone. Although the church was designed in 1880, it was not dedicated until 1886, and at this time, Pope Leo XIII sent a chalice to the Parish in honor of the completion of this church, the first in America to be named Saint Mary of the Assumption.

Swedenborgian Church of Lancaster // 1881

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Built in 1881, the Swedenborgian Church of the New Jerusalem in Lancaster, Massachusetts, is a handsome Victorian-era chapel that has been well-preserved for nearly 150 years. The Queen Anne/Shingle style church was designed by architect Francis Ward Chandler of the firm, Cabot & Chandler, for the local Swedenborgians in Lancaster, some of which likely spent summers in Lancaster from Boston. The membership of the church dwindled in the early 20th century, and the congregation sold the church to a local women’s social group, the Current Topics Club in 1923. The women’s club met in the old church and maintained the building for nearly a century until the building sold to private owners in about 2007, who converted it to a residence, preserving the unique architecture we still see today.

First Church of Lancaster // 1816

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Built in 1816, the First Church of Lancaster is one of just two extant church buildings designed by famed American architect, Charles Bulfinch, and is said to be one of the finest churches in the Federal style in the United States. The fifth meetinghouse of the Unitarian First Church of Christ in Lancaster, this building was constructed of local brick, slate, and lumber from master-builder, Thomas Hearsey. Hearsey is said to have modified Bulfinch’s design, which had proposed one tall center arch flanked by two lower arches to reflect the unequal heights of the three vestibule doors behind them; instead going with three, identical arches. Other than this change, the church remains substantially as originally built, even without artificial lighting or central heat inside. Besides the iconic arched portico, the two- stage brick tower topped by a beautifully proportioned wood cupola surrounded by Roman Ionic columns, and fronted by a giant arcuated portico, is especially noteworthy. The congregation, which dates back to 1653 as a Puritan congregation was the first parish established in Central Massachusetts and remains active to this day.

Old St. Stephen’s Church – Barker Playhouse // 1840

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The old St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Providence’s Fox Point neighborhood is an architecturally distinctive Greek Revival style church building located on charming Benefit Street. The church had its beginnings in 1839, when the newly established congregation called on 29-year-old Francis Vinton to serve as their first pastor. The congregation funded this small church which broke ground in 1840, and before it was completed, Rev. Vinton resigned as Rector. The building, built of stone and covered in stucco, once had a spire and belfry above the main entrance. The congregation grew over the next decade and it was soon realized that a larger and more central church should be built for members, many of whom were wealthy residents with mansions surrounding Brown College. In 1860, the parish purchased a lot on George Street, and hired architect, Richard Upjohn to design the new church in the Gothic style. For reasons of location, and possibly social class, twenty-two men and women remained here at the less fashionable church and formed a new parish, the Church of the Saviour. The smaller, mission church with its stucco walls, remained until the property was sold in 1932 to house the Barker Playhouse, reputed to be the oldest continuously operating little theatre in the United States.