The Old Lyme Congregational Church is located in

Old Lyme, Connecticut Old Lyme is a coastal town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The main street of the town, Lyme Street, is a historic district with several homes once owned by sea captains. Lyme Academy of Fine Arts is located in Old Lyme and the ...

. The church is noted as a favorite subject of Old Lyme Art Colony painters. It is 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 ...

History

The first Meeting House was built in 1665 and the first minister was Moses Noyes. New buildings were constructed in 1689 and 1738. The present building was erected in 1816-7 by architect Samuel Belcher, Belcher also designed the John Sill and William Noyes houses on Lyme Street. The building was burnt down in a July 3, 1907 fire, then rebuilt with help from artists at the Old Lyme art colony in 1908-9. Five other Congregational churches were built on essentially the same design in the

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

towns of Milford (1823), Cheshire (the 1827

First Congregational Church of Cheshire The First Congregational Church of Cheshire is a historic church at 111 Church Drive in Cheshire, Connecticut. Built in 1827, it was designed by David Hoadley (architect), David Hoadley and is a prominent local example of Federal period architec ...

), Litchfield (the 1829

First Congregational Church of Litchfield The First Congregational Church of Litchfield is a congregation of the United Church of Christ in Litchfield, Connecticut, USA, occupying a historic building on the Litchfield green. History The church was founded in 1721, when the town was fir ...

Southington Southington is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, it had a population of 43,501. Southington contains the villages of Marion, Milldale, and Plantsville. Geography Southington is situ ...

(1830), and Guilford (the 1830

First Congregational Church of Guilford First Congregational Church of Guilford is a United Church of Christ congregation in Guilford, Connecticut. The church was founded in 1643, just a few years after the first settlement of Guilford in 1639. At that time, under the theocratic structu ...

). All six churches have front porticos with four fluted columns, the doors of all six have the same dimensions, all six

steeple In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religi ...

s are of the same design and are surmounted by

weathervane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

s that appear to have been cast from one mold, and all six churches have twenty-over-twenty double-hung windows. The similarities suggest that some of the building elements may have been prefabricated. The building was restored circa 2001 by volunteers, including architect Stephen Lloyd.

Paintings

Impressionist

Childe Hassam Frederick Childe Hassam (; October 17, 1859 – August 27, 1935) was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressioni ...

depicted the church in a series of three celebrated paintings from 1903 to 1906. One hangs in the

Parrish Art Museum The Parrish Art Museum is an art museum designed by Herzog & de Meuron Architects and located in Water Mill, New York, whereto it moved in 2012 from Southampton Village. The museum focuses extensively on work by artists from the artist colony o ...

in Southampton, New York. Another is displayed in the

Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum at 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, in Delaware Park. the museum's Elmwood Avenue campus is temporarily closed for construction. It hosted e ...

in Buffalo, New York. Hassam's paintings helped bring publicity to the Old Lyme art colony and helped tourism in the town. Other artists at the colony, including Charles Ebert and

Everett Warner Everett Longley Warner (July 16, 1877 – October 20, 1963) was an American Impressionist painter and printmaker, as well as a leading contributor to US Navy camouflage during both World Wars. Early years Warner was born in the small town of Vi ...

(in about 1911), also tried their hands at painting the church.

References

External links

Official website of the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme

''Childe Hassam: American Impressionist''
a full-text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Old Lyme {{Authority control United Church of Christ churches in Connecticut Old Lyme, Connecticut Churches in New London County, Connecticut Churches completed in 1817 19th-century United Church of Christ church buildings 20th-century United Church of Christ church buildings Churches completed in 1909