The parish of St. John's Episcopal Church, Hartford, Connecticut , was formed in 1841. Its first building, designed by Henry Austin (architect), [1] was constructed on Main Street just south of the Wadsworth Atheneum in 1842. The parish left Hartford in 1907 and is now St. John's Episcopal Church (West Hartford, Connecticut).
St. John's was founded in 1841 in downtown Hartford, Connecticut in response to overcrowding at nearby Christ Church (Hartford, Connecticut). [2] An activist organization, [2] St. John's was instrumental in the development of other prominent Hartford area churches including the Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House (Hartford, Connecticut), St. John's Episcopal Church (East Hartford, Connecticut), and St. Monica's, the second Episcopal congregation in the state for Black Americans. [3] As the nineteenth century progressed, the western suburbs became increasingly popular as a place for city dwellers to live with the result that the number of St. John's worshipers was in decline. [2] In 1907, financier J. P. Morgan purchased the church building and its property for the construction of a memorial gallery to be added to Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum. The parish then moved to suburban West Hartford, Connecticut, which was undergoing steady growth. [4]
Designed by Henry Austin (architect), St. John's (Hartford) was the first church building attributed to that prolific artisan. [1] Having assisted with design work for the nearby Wadsworth Atheneum, Austin created plans for a church building with a seating capacity of 850. At the time of its construction, St. John's reputedly had one of the tallest spires in New England. [2] The Hartford Courant, quoting Chronicle of the Church, described the building as "a chaste and beautiful structure in the early pointed Gothic style, built of Chatham free stone..." and its interior as having a "chancel, with a massive rail, supported by mullions finished on either side." Additionally, "there are side galleries, with a convenient choir over the vestibule, in which is placed an organ of superior finish and tone." [5] That first organ was Opus 47, consisting of two manuals and twenty-two stops, by E. and G.G. Hook Organ of Boston. In 1861, the first Hook organ was replaced by Opus 295 of two manuals and thirty stops by the same manufacturer.
As the years wore on, the church building began to show its age. The spire was eventually removed as the result of structural decay, the boiler became increasingly noisy, and finding space for the parish's many activities was becoming difficult. [6] These, and other factors, figured into the parish's ultimate decision to build a new church in suburban West Hartford, Connecticut. The last services were held in the Austin edifice in 1907 and it was subsequently demolished. Many of the original St. John's furnishings, including its bell and, at first, its altar rail, pulpit and lectern would be utilized in the new St. John's Episcopal Church (West Hartford, Connecticut) building, designed by noted architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue.
Prominent parishioners of the church's Hartford years included Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, who purchased a pew at St. John's in 1864 [7] and regularly attended Sunday services with her twin daughters Hattie and Eliza. [8] At about the same time Mrs. Stowe became a member, Elizabeth Jarvis Colt, the wife of Colonel Samuel Colt, also joined. At the time, she was running Colt Firearms following her husband's recent death. Gideon Welles, President Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy, was also a congregant in the years following the American Civil War.
While in Hartford, St. John's had many notable clergy including Arthur Cleveland Coxe, St. John's first Rector (1842-1854), who later served as the second Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York. During his tenure at St. John's, Coxe penned "Saviour, Sprinkle Many Nations", [9] a hymn text later set to music by Arthur Sullivan. William Croswell Doane, who served as Rector from 1863 to 1867, eventually became the first Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany, New York. Doane, who is known to have later visited the Hartford area at least once during Mark Twain's years there, [10] is the subject of a Twain anecdote set in that city. As reported in The Independent, after hearing one of Bishop Doane's sermons Twain informed him he had "a book at home which contains every word of it." Following Doane's protests, Twain "showed the clergyman an unabridged dictionary and said he 'stood ready to prove it'". [11]
A number of talented musicians were affiliated with St. John's (Hartford) including organists and composers such as Dudley Buck [2] and Henry Wellington Greatorex. [12]
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the 2010 United States Census have indicated that Hartford is the fourth-largest city in Connecticut, behind the coastal cities of Bridgeport, New Haven, and Stamford.
The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School landscapes, modernist masterpieces and contemporary works, as well as collections of early American furniture and decorative arts.
Arthur Cleveland Coxe was the second Episcopal bishop of Western New York. He used Cleveland as his given name and is often referred to as A. Cleveland Coxe.
Austin Organs, Inc. is a manufacturer of pipe organs based in Hartford, Connecticut. The company is one of the oldest continuously-operating organ manufacturers in the United States. The first instruments were built in 1893 with the Austin Patent Airchest, and many remain in fine playing condition to this day.
William Croswell Doane was the 1st Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany in the United States. He was bishop from 1869 until his death in 1913.
St. Mary's Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal parish in Burlington, Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. The original church was built in 1703. It was supplemented with a new church on adjacent land in 1854. On May 31, 1972, the new church was added to the National Register of Historic Places and on June 24, 1986, it was declared a National Historic Landmark. It is within the Burlington Historic District.
The Harriet Beecher Stowe House is a historic house museum and National Historic Landmark at 73 Forest Street in Hartford, Connecticut that was once the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of the 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stowe lived in this house for the last 23 years of her life. It was her family's second home in Hartford. The 5,000 sq ft cottage-style house is located adjacent to the Mark Twain House and is open to the public. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and declared a National Historic Landmark in 2013.
Henry Austin was a prominent and prolific American architect based in New Haven, Connecticut. He practiced for more than fifty years and designed many public buildings and homes primarily in the New Haven area. His most significant years of production seem to be the 1840s and 1850s.
The neighborhoods of Hartford, Connecticut in the United States are varied and historic.
The Colt Armory is a historic factory complex for the manufacture of firearms, created by Samuel Colt. It is located in Hartford, Connecticut along the Connecticut River, and as of 2008 is part of the Coltsville Historic District, named a National Historic Landmark District. It is slated to become part of Coltsville National Historical Park, now undergoing planning by the National Park Service.
Edward Tuckerman Potter was an American architect best known for designing the 1871 Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut. With his half-brother William Appleton Potter, he also designed Nott Memorial Hall (1858–79) at his alma mater, Union College, Schenectady, New York. Both the Mark Twain House and Nott Memorial Hall are National Historic Landmarks.
The Hartford Public Library serves the city of Hartford, Connecticut. The library's main branch is located at 500 Main Street in downtown Hartford. The nine branch locations are named Albany, Barbour, Blue Hills, Camp Field, Dwight, Goodwin, Mark Twain, Park and Ropkins. All branches feature free public access computers and free Wi-Fi.
The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception is a Roman Catholic church located at 74 West Main Street in Waterbury, Connecticut.
St. John's is an Episcopal Church located at 679 Farmington Avenue in West Hartford, Connecticut near the Hartford, Connecticut, city line. The parish was founded in 1841 as St. John's Episcopal Church in Hartford. The church's present building, designed by famed architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, opened in 1909. It is noted for its reredos designed by Mr. Goodhue and executed by prominent sculptor Lee Lawrie; its organ, Opus 2761 by Austin Organs, Inc., with 64 ranks and 3721 pipes; and its thirty-six stained glass windows by designers/manufacturers such as the Harry Eldredge Goodhue Company of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Wilbur H. Burnham Studios of Boston, Massachusetts, and London, England's James Powell and Sons.
St. Joseph is a Roman Catholic church in Danbury, Connecticut, part of the Diocese of Bridgeport.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Hartford, Connecticut, USA.
Elizabeth Jarvis Colt was the widow and heir of firearms manufacturer Samuel Colt, founder of Colt's Manufacturing Company.
The Hartford Times Building is an historic Beaux-Arts building in downtown Hartford, Connecticut built as the headquarters of the now defunct Hartford Times. The newspaper commissioned architect Donn Barber, who had designed the nearby Travelers Tower and Connecticut State Library and Supreme Court Building, to build it a new structure to house its office and newspaper plant. At the time the paper was at the height of its influence with the top circulation in the state in 1917.
Grace & St. Peter's Church is an Anglo-Catholic Episcopal parish in the city of Baltimore, in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. The congregation is the product of the 1912 amalgamation of two earlier parishes, St. Peter's Church and Grace Church. Its building, constructed in Brownstone, is an elaborate example of English Gothic Revival architecture dating from 1852. Today, Grace & St. Peter's is distinguished by its Anglo-Catholic liturgy and professional choir. From 1940 to 2020, it was also home to the Wilkes School at Grace & St. Peter's, an Episcopal day school which closed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coordinates: 41°45′47″N72°40′26″W / 41.7630°N 72.6739°W
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