The First Church of Christ and the Ancient Burying Ground (also known as Center Church: First Church of Christ in Hartford or First Church in Hartford) is a historic church and cemetery at 60 Gold Street in
Hartford, Connecticut
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 ...
. It is the oldest church congregation in Hartford, founded in 1636 by
Thomas Hooker
Thomas Hooker (July 5, 1586 – July 7, 1647) was a prominent English colonial leader and Congregational minister, who founded the Connecticut Colony after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was known as an outstanding spea ...
. The present building, the congregation's fourth, was built in 1807, and was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1972.
The adjacent cemetery, formally set apart in 1640, was the city's sole cemetery until 1803.
Description
The First Church of Christ, located in downtown Hartford at the corner of Main and Gold Streets, is a prominent local example of Classical Revival architecture. Daniel Wadsworth probably designed it, loosely following the example of architect James Gibbs's church of
Saint Martin in the Fields in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. A monumental two-story temple portico with modified Ionic columns forms the entrance to the brick structure, and is surmounted by a three-stage tower that repeats the columns at an increasingly diminished scale at each major level. There are three entrances on the main facade, each topped by a half-round fanlight window. The Ancient Burying Ground extends west and north of the church and features a variety of stones made from many different carvers out of different materials such as
brownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material.
Type ...
,
schist
Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes o ...
,
slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
and
marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...
.
History
The Hartford congregation was founded as a
Reformed congregation in 1636 with
Thomas Hooker
Thomas Hooker (July 5, 1586 – July 7, 1647) was a prominent English colonial leader and Congregational minister, who founded the Connecticut Colony after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was known as an outstanding spea ...
serving as the first pastor.
Historical catalogue of the First Church in Hartford. 1633-1885
(Pub. by the Church, Hartford: 1885) The members of the congregation had previously migrated from England to Massachusetts and spent four years there before leaving Massachusetts after a dispute with the Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...
. The old burial ground adjacent to the building in Hartford dates to around 1640 with the oldest surviving tombstone in the yard dating from 1648. The current church meeting house dates to 1807 and is the fourth meeting house to serve as a place of worship for the congregation. The church meeting house and cemetery were added to the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1972. The congregation is currently affiliated with the United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximatel ...
(UCC).
Notable members and persons buried in the burying ground
*Thomas Hooker
Thomas Hooker (July 5, 1586 – July 7, 1647) was a prominent English colonial leader and Congregational minister, who founded the Connecticut Colony after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was known as an outstanding spea ...
, Founder of Connecticut
*William Leete
William Leete (1612 or 1613 – 16 April 1683) was Governor of the Colony of New Haven from 1661 to 1665 and Governor of the Colony of Connecticut from 1676 to 1683.
Biography
Leete was born about 1612 or 1613 at Diddington, Huntingdonshire, E ...
, Governor of Connecticut
* Joseph Talcott, Governor of Connecticut
*Jeremiah Wadsworth
Jeremiah Wadsworth (July 12, 1743 – April 30, 1804) was an American sea captain, merchant, and statesman from Hartford, Connecticut who profited from his position as a government official charged with supplying the Continental Army. He r ...
, United States House of Representatives
*Thomas Welles
Thomas Welles (14 January 1660) is the only person in Connecticut's history to hold all four top offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary. In 1639, he was elected as the first treasurer of the Colony of Connecticut, and fro ...
, Governor of Connecticut
*George Wyllys
George Wyllys or Wyllis (1590 – 9 March 1645) served for a year (1642–1643) as one of the early governors of the Connecticut Colony.
Born at the manor of Fenny Compton in Warwickshire, England, to Richard and Hester (Chambers) Willi ...
, Governor of Connecticut
Gallery
File:FirstChurchofChristHartfordCT.jpg, Angled frontal view of the church.
File:Gateway_to_Ancient_Burial_Ground_Hartford_CT.JPG, Gateway to the Ancient Burying Ground
File:Brownstones81105.jpg, Mix of brownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material.
Type ...
graves in the cemetery.
Image:First Church of Christ Hartford CT.JPG, Center Church House
File:TimothyStanley1648TombstoneHartfordCT.jpg, The Stone of Timothy Stanley, the oldest tombstone in the yard dating to 1648, carved by George Griswold of Windsor CT
File:BartlettManningStonesHartford123410.jpg, Schist tombstones carved (left to right) by Gershom Bartlett and Aaron Haskins.
File:BrownstoneTabletopgravesHartfordBuryingGround.jpg, Group of Tabletop Grave Markers from the 1700s in the Ancient Burying Ground
File:SlateTombstoneHartfordBuryingGround.jpg, Slate Tombstone from 1740 with deaths head imagery, carved in Boston
See also
*Founders of Hartford, Connecticut
The History of Hartford, Connecticut has occupied a central place in Connecticut's history from the state's origins to the present, as well as the greater history of the United States of America.
Founders
Here is a partial list of the 163 men an ...
*National Register of Historic Places in Hartford, Connecticut
__NOTOC__
This is a list of properties on the National Register of Historic Places in Hartford, Connecticut.
This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Hartford, Connect ...
References
External links
Official church website
Historical catalogue of the First Church in Hartford. 1633-1885
(Pub. by the Church, Hartford: 1885)
Hartford’s Ancient Burying Ground
{{National Register of Historic Places
1636 establishments in Connecticut
1640 establishments in Connecticut
19th-century churches in the United States
Churches completed in 1807
Churches in Hartford, Connecticut
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
Cemeteries in Hartford County, Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in Hartford, Connecticut
Neoclassical architecture in Connecticut
United Church of Christ churches in Connecticut
Neoclassical church buildings in the United States