The Union Baptist Church is a historic church at 1913 and 1921 Main Street in
Hartford
Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
,
Connecticut
Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
. Originally built by an Episcopal congregation, it has for many years been home to an
African-American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
Baptist congregation, which under the leadership of Rev. John C. Jackson (1866-1953), played a significant role in advancing the cause of civil rights in the state.
The church, and its adjacent parsonage, were listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1979.
Architecture and history
The Union Baptist Church is locate in Hartford's northern Clay-Arsenal neighborhood, on the west side of Main Street near its junction with Mahl Avenue. It is an Early English Gothic stone structure, designed by Henry Martyn Congdon and built in 1871, with a number of later additions. It has a roughly cruciform plan, with a rounded apse and short transepts. The main entrance is set near the rear end of the south side, under a Stick style gabled portico. Modern additions housing offices and other facilities extend further to the rear.
[
The church was built in 1871, and was original known as the Saint Thomas Episcopal Church, honoring Thomas Brownell, the founder of Hartford's ]Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
. It was acquired by the Baptist congregation of Rev. John C. Jackson in 1925; this congregation had been founded in 1871 by a group of freed slaves from Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
. Jackson was an early force in advancing civil rights in Connecticut, and is credited with securing a position for the first African-American teacher in the city's public schools. Members of the congregation have also historically occupied important civic and social positions in the community.[
]
See also
*
References
External links
Union Baptist Church website
{{Authority control
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
Gothic Revival church buildings in Connecticut
Churches completed in 1871
19th-century Baptist churches in the United States
Churches in Hartford, Connecticut
Baptist churches in Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in Hartford, Connecticut