Windsor Avenue Congregational Church, Hartford

Located on Main Street in Hartford’s Clay-Arsenal neighborhood, Faith Congregational Church is housed in a striking Romanesque Revival brick structure originally built in 1872 as Windsor Avenue Congregational Church. Designed by Boston architect Samuel J. F. Thayer, the church stands out with its cruciform layout, red and black brick masonry, and distinctive square tower with steeple and spire. The main entrance is set beneath a gabled projection, framed by a pair of two-story round-arch panels and topped with three arched windows.

The Windsor Avenue Congregation, named after the former name of North Main Street, was formally established in 1869 and built this church shortly afterward, growing out of a Sunday school founded in 1864. A neighboring parish house, designed by Isaac A. Allen Jr., was added in 1904. That same year, the congregation merged with another to become the Horace Bushnell Congregational Church and relocated, selling the building to what would soon be known as Faith Congregational Church.

Faith Congregational Church was formed in 1953 from the union of two historic African American congregations: Talcott Street Congregational Church (founded in 1819, Hartford’s oldest African-American church) and Mother Bethel Methodist Church. The building now serves as both a house of worship and a monument to African-American heritage in the city. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated stop on the Connecticut Freedom Trail.