The first St. John's Church in 1905 from a
contemporary postal card. (St. John's Archives)
The early
history of St. John's Church is intertwined with the growth and
development of Christ Church Cathedral. Hartford became the parish seat of
the Diocese of Connecticut in 1785 and by 1792 a wooden edifice was built
at the present site of the Cathedral at the southwest corner of Church and
Main Streets. Opened in 1795 and consecrated in 1801, Christ Church became
increasingly less accommodating as the number of Episcopalian faithful
grew beyond expectation. It was replaced by the present Gothic style
building in 1829 but only eleven years later the Rector informed the
diocesan convention that Christ Church was nearing its limit for new
congregants.
The space crisis at Christ Church spawned a debate as
to whether the present edifice would be expanded, a second building would
serve as an extension of Christ Church's parish, or an entire new parish
would be developed at a nearby location. With the urging of Christ
Church's Rector and the support of several prominent businessmen, bearing
well established names like Brainard, Eaton, Goodwin and Huntington, and
professors from Washington (later Trinity) College, St. John's was
incorporated in 1841.
The first St. John's building was designed by
Henry Austin and built on a parcel on the east side of Main Street about
ten short blocks south of Christ Church. In his history of the first
hundred years of St. John's, Dr. Nelson R. Burr wrote: "The edifice was in
every way worthy of the devotion that inspired it, and represented the
best revival of Gothic art. Bishop Brownell said that for architectural
taste and propriety few churches in the country could surpass it." Dr.
Burr noted the church's statistics as: 112 feet long, three aisles wide
and with a capacity of 850. "The slender spire," he wrote, "was one of the
highest in Hartford." The tower was constructed of "freestone from the
famous quarries at Portland, but the recessed chancel was of
brick".
"Old" St. John's as originally built. (Geer's Hartford City
Directory, 1905)
The interior of the 1841 St. John's suited
the "high church" leanings of its parishioners and contained elaborate
railings, pulpit trimmings in purple velvet and a white marble baptismal
font. The organ, built by Boston’s prominent firm of E. & G. G. Hook,
was updated in 1850 and, with the help of parishioner Gideon Welles who
had recently left to become President Lincoln’s navy secretary, again a
decade later. (Note: for more information on St. John’s organs see “A
Brief History Of Pipe Organs At St. John’s Church” by Ralph B. Valentine,
Organist and Choirmaster)
Through the years a number of
improvements were made to the building. 1847 brought a bell (later moved
to the second St. John's), 1849 saw gas lighting, in 1850 an elaborate
iron fence similar to the one at Christ Church was erected and in 1856 a
furnace, typically cantankerous for its times, was added to the basement.
As the number of parish activities increased other remodeling was done in
a piecemeal fashion and meeting rooms were squeezed in here and
there.
In the summer of 1874, the church closed for cleaning and
repainting--something which was a necessary byproduct of the soot and
smoke of nineteenth century city life. Shortly thereafter it was
discovered that the spire was structurally unsound and in 1875 this
prominent feature was removed leaving the church's profile permanently
altered. The year 1887 brought stalls for the recently organized vested
boy's choir, a new pulpit arrived also in 1887 and in 1888 a marvel,
electric lighting, was installed. As the 19th century neared its close
various additional cosmetic improvements were made and one significant
alteration, moving the organ from one side of the church to the other to
make space for a vestry room, occurred.
Interior of "Old" St. John's circa
1895. (St. John's Archives)
Through its history, St. John's
had been an active "parent" for several other parishes: Grace Church,
Windsor (1842), St. James's, West Hartford (1843), St. Mary's, Manchester
(1844), St. Paul's, Hartford (1850), St. John's, East Hartford (1854),
Church of the Good Shepherd, Hartford (1866), St. James's, Hartford
(1868), and St. Monica's, Hartford (1904). The Hartford churches, in
particular, presented a problem for St. John's in that many of its own
parishioners, lured by the ongoing growth of Hartford to the west, left
for the new offspring churches and for other Episcopal congregations like
the now defunct St. Thomas's. As early as 1885 proposals were made to
combine St. John's with a number of other parishes but the efforts came to
nought.
By 1905, St. John's had seen a serious decline in the
number of both regular attendees and parishioners formally listed on its
rolls. Coincidentally, Hartford native J. Pierpont Morgan, one of the
nation's wealthiest individuals and himself a dedicated Episcopalian, was
pondering a significant gift to the Wadworth Atheneum. The Atheneum, the
nation's oldest publicly supported museum, was located only two buildings
to the north of St. John's and the declining church's property became a
prime target for the expansion of the museum. Morgan, sensing an
opportunity, offered $75,000 in 1905 for the purchase of the St. John's
edifice and site. A deal was struck between church and the museum and the
last service in the first St. John's took place on Easter Day, March 31,
1907.
The above text was derived in part from Nelson Burr’s
A History of Saint John’s Church, 1841 – 1941 (1941) and A
History of St. John’s Church, 1841 – 1995 (1996), by Gary E. Wait. The
latter title is available from the church.