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

First Church of Christ, Hartford, Connecticut

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 Reform is beneficial change Reform may also refer to: Media * ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang * Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group * ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine *''Reforme'' ("Reforms"), initial name of the ...

congregation in 1636 with

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

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 approximately 4 ...

(UCC).

Notable members and persons buried in the burying ground

, 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, En ...

, Governor of Connecticut *

Joseph Talcott Joseph Talcott (November 16, 1669 – October 11, 1741) was the 26th governor of the Connecticut Colony from 1724 until his death in 1741. Biography Talcott was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel John and Helena Wakeman ...

, 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 re ...

, 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 from ...

, 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) Will ...

, 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

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

References

External links

Official church websiteHistorical 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

Description

History

Notable members and persons buried in the burying ground

Gallery

See also

References

External links