Church of the Holy Trinity Weathered Storms Over Past 250 Years

Last week, Buzz From Around the Bend introduced readers to the first Episcopalians in Middletown. In 1724 the Anglicans established their first local parish in Middletown and built a church in 1755 on the South Green.

The members of this church were eyed suspiciously during the American Revolution, for fear that their connection with the Church of England might challenge their loyalty to the Americans fighting for independence. According to the church history, “Some ruffians had gained access to the church and had done a great deal of mischief. They had so damaged the bell… that it was rendered unfit for use.”

Although most of the members of the church were Patriots, Christ Church elected to close their doors for a period to avoid trouble in the community.

In 1832, Samuel Russell offered a lot of land at the back end of his property, at Court and Pearl Streets, to Christ Church for a new church building. The leadership decided against this site and purchased a lot from Mr. Gill for $900 a block away at Broad and Court Streets. Construction began, and on Sept. 1, 1834, the first services were held in the structure designed and built by Barzillai and Comfort Sage in the Greek Revival style.

In the 1840s, the basement of the church on Broad Street was used for classes of the first public high school in Connecticut. For $125 per year, the City School rented the basement for classroom space before they were able to build their own high school on College Street (later Central School; now Hamlin Court Apartments).

Financially, the church was having tough times. Then there was a nasty divorce with the Reverend and his wife. When he resigned, the assistant rector was offered the job, but he left with the good reverend.

Times improved! By the 1850s, the church was busting at the seams and there was so much demand for the services of the Episcopalians that several branch churches were opened.  A mission was started in South Farms in 1869, and within a year a branch church was built at the corner of East Main Street and Main Street Extension. (This building was recently torn down for a Walgreen’s Pharmacy).

Another mission church was opened in Pameacha, and St.  Andrews Chapel was built on Warwick Street in the 1890s, which until recently was the Polish National Home. Maromas got its own mission branch; another one was built in Long Hill, and yet another in Staddle Hill. 

Good things started rolling.  In 1855 the Berkeley Divinity School was opened in Middletown in the home of a former minister, Doctor Samuel Jarvis. This grand house, at the corner of Main and Washington Streets, served for many years to train Episcopalian priests for service in the United States. Eventually, the Berkeley compound, included St. Luke’s Chapel (1861), occupied most of the land from the corner of Washington Street to the Church of the Holy Trinity on the west side of Main.

In April of 1857, Christ Church voted to change their name to the Society of the Parish of the Church of the Holy Trinity.  This was done by direction of the will of Mrs. Martha Mortimer Starr. She offered her home and its land on the west side of Main Street for a new church building in exchange for the name change.  Thus plans were made for a new church on Main Street under the new name.

The new Church of the Holy Trinity was consecrated in 1874 and the old church building was turned over to the City of Middletown for its first public library. Mrs. Frances A. Russell bought the property for $15,000 and refurbished it for the city’s use on the condition it would be named Russell Library in honor of her late husband, Samuel Russell.

One of the hardest blows to the church was the removal of the Berkeley Divinity School in 1928 to New Haven. In 1971, it became part of Yale University. The Jarvis House and St. Luke’s Chapel were torn down in 1929 for commercial buildings, which today surround the Episcopal church on Main Street.

The Church of the Holy Trinity has weathered many storms over the past 250 years, including the closing of all its mission branches in Haddam and Middletown. It was damaged during the 1938 and 1954 hurricanes. But it still survives and graces our Main Street with elegant and beautiful facade.

Source: Richter, Alice Bridge. History of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Middletown, Connecticut. Middletown: 1963.