Center Church on the Green

In 1638, John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton purchased the land that would become New Haven from the Quinnipiac tribe, with the intention of creating a theocratic colony just off the coast. That same year, Davenport preached his first sermon on the site at which Center Church on the Green (then called the First Ecclesiastical Society) still stands. The first meeting house was built on the site in 1639, and the current building—the congregation’s fourth meeting-house—has stood since 1814.

Over its nearly 400 years of existence, First Church has served crucial social, political, and religious functions for the city of New Haven. It was a crucial part of state government, and received state tax revenue, until the Connecticut state constitution was rewritten in 1818. One of its ministers, the Rev. James Pierpont, was instrumental in bringing Yale to New Haven in 1701. The basement of the current building houses a crypt in which many of the colony’s first residents—including Davenport and Eaton—have found their final resting places.

Today, Center Church is the centerpiece of the Green’s three churches. While its political and even social functions have dwindled drastically since the 18^th and 19^th centuries, it remains a vital historic and traditional monument in the center of the city’s most prominent public space. The congregation still worships every Sunday, making it the oldest church in the city. 

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Center Church and its congregants in various iterations have owned and used the land at 250 Temple Street since 1638, when it was purchased by John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton from the Quinnipiac tribe under the leadership of sachem Momauguin.[1] In the more than 375 years since, a meeting-house has existed on the site in 4 forms—two small wooden ones, built in 1639 and 1670, and two brick ones, built in 1755 and 1814.[2]

At the time the current structure was built, the Green also functioned as a cemetery. The current structure, which was constructed from 1812-14, was built over several of these graves. The basement of the church thus functions as a crypt, where the graves of some of the first residents of New Haven colony still lie—including that of Eaton, the colony’s first governor. The remainder of the grave markers on the Green were moved to the New Haven Burying Ground (later called Grove Street Cemetery) in 1821, and so Center Church’s crypt is an important historical marker which, in some sense, captures the New Haven Green as it once was.

[1] https://yipp.yale.edu/bio/bibliography/momauguin

[2] Historic Resources Inventory. 

The same congregation has worshipped at the site of 250 Temple Street since the colonization of New Haven in 1638. The Reverend John Davenport, one of the colony’s founders, organized the congregation with New Haven’s original Puritan colonists—including the colony’s first governor, Theophilus Eaton, who is buried underneath the current building. Over the ensuing nearly four centuries, the congregation has had four meeting-houses, all on or near the same site, and gone by several names (including the First Ecclesiastical Society, First Congregational Church, First Church of Christ, and the contemporary Center Church). The underlying institution and location, however, have remained constant since the founding of New Haven—making Center Church central to understanding New Haven’s religious and civic history.

New Haven and the state of Connecticut were founded as Congregationalist enclaves, and so Center Church (which was Congregationalist) was intimately tied to civic life from its founding—receiving funds from state taxes and participating explicitly in state government. This state of affairs persisted until church and state were formally separated in the Connecticut state constitution of 1818, called by some historians the “bloodless Revolution of 1818.”[1] Yet even then, New Haven served as the co-capitol of Connecticut from 1701 to 1873, and the statehouse stood immediately across the Green from Center Church, on the College Street side near the university. Depictions of the state house and the church from this period often depict the two structures as part of the same landscape, illustrating the church’s continued importance in the civic life of New Haven even after its explicit influence had ended.

The church also served an important function as an early bridge between town and gown. The Reverend James Pierpont, a storied and widely influential reverend of the church, was instrumental in relocating Yale College from Saybrook to New Haven in 1701. Because of this connection, Yale students attended church in the church’s meeting-house from 1701 to 1757, when the University constructed its own chapel. Yale commencements took place in the meeting-house for nearly two centuries, from 1701-1895, and to this day graduating students march around the building during the commencement procession to commemorate Center Church’s traditional, sustained relationship with the university.[2]

[1] https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog?f%5Boffice_id_ssim%5D%5B%5D=ON027&f%5Bstate_name_sim%5D%5B%5D=Connecticut&range%5Bdate_sim%5D%5Bbegin%5D=1817&range%5Bdate_sim%5D%5Bend%5D=1817

[2] http://centerchurchonthegreen.org/history/more-history/

Center Church sits in the center of the southeast side of the New Haven Green, facing away from Yale’s Old Campus and towards New Haven City Hall. It is flanked on either side by Trinity Episcopal Church and United Church on the Green, each of which was constructed within five years of Center Church. To modern sensibilities, the prominence of these three religious institutions in New Haven’s most important public space is a reminder of the degree to which Christianity is interwoven with New Haven’s past, even as its influence continues to decline in the present. It is also a reminder of the important, even elite role that the Green once played in New Haven politics and social life. Today, the Green serves as a public space, a park, and a home for many New Haveners who are currently without a traditional place to live. Center Church, along with the other churches on the Green, has increased its outreach to this population in recent years, reflecting a new clientele that has shifted as the downtown space has morphed from a center of elite activity to a space where the socioeconomic stratifications present in the city are incredibly clear.

The section of Temple Street bordering the Green is itself an enclave from the commerce and bustle that characterizes the rest of the street. Northeast from Center Church along Temple are Yale buildings—residential and classroom—and the street is heavily used by undergraduates, grad students, and faculty when classes are in session. Southwest down Temple is a slew of restaurants, bars, and theaters—the center of the city’s nightlife. The three churches and the Green itself serve a dual, somewhat contradictory function—as physical visual barriers between Yale and downtown New Haven which simultaneously occupy a space that ought to let residents, in theory, cross from one of these spaces into the other. 

Center Church’s architecture is in the Post-Georgian, Federal style, consciously modeled after British churches constructed by James Gibbs like St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London. The steeple of Center Church, like that of St. Martin’s, has its steeple centrally located behind the pediment, above the interior of the church—an unusual architectural move for its time, when steeples were often located to the side of the main structure.[1] After its use in St. Martin’s, this innovation became increasingly popular—the steeple at United Church next door is located in a similar position.

The exterior of Center Church is entirely brick masonry, with the exception of the columns, doors, and steeple, which all have a white-painted wood exterior. There is a marble arch above the main entrance with historical detailing which was added in the mid-1800s.[2] The sides of the building feature wall arches built into the brick, encasing Gibbs-style windows.[3] A hugely important feature of the exterior is the steeple itself, a square wooden tower which rises a floor above the roof level and culminates in a 2-tiered spire.[4] There is a clock on the outside of the tower, and the steeple encloses the church’s current bell. The bell original to the structure cracked as it was ringing out a fire alarm in 1853, and the city of New Haven purchased the current replacement from a company in Troy, New York in 1854.[5]  

The interior of Center Church exhibits many fascinating architectural aspects. The sanctuary, which has both a ground floor and a balcony, is covered by a domed ceiling supported by scissor trusses.[6] Several of the numbered slip-type pews are marked by plaques bearing the name of the congregant who originally purchased it. Over time, the sanctuary has gone through several variations. The pulpit, which originally rose to two full stories high, was lowered to a more practical one-story version in 1842. At that time, the balconies were lowered as well.[7] The windows of the church have also undergone several renovations throughout the years—in the late 19^th century, the original paned windows were replaced with stained glass windows, which were removed in the late 1960s. The only stained glass window remaining in the sanctuary currently is the Tiffany Studios-designed window directly behind the pulpit. That window, donated in 1894, depicts founder John Davenport preaching his first sermon in New Haven on April 25, 1638.[8]

Perhaps the most unique feature of Center Church lies beneath its imposing sanctuary and towering spire. This is the crypt in its basement. When Center Church was constructed, the New Haven Green still functioned as a cemetery—and the church was built over 137 graves dating back to 1638. The graves and grave markers were left in their original positions, encased and protected by the foundation of the structure. The floor of the crypt, once cement, is now overlaid with brick in order to release moisture from the soil and protect the grave markers. The ceiling is supported by several columns.[9] The crypt is available for tours during the months of April-October.

[1] Summerson 320-7

[2] Historic Resources Inventory

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] https://ctcryptkeeper.wordpress.com/2016/08/08/bells/

[6] Historic Resources Inventory

[7] Ibid.

[8] http://centerchurchonthegreen.org/history/architecture/

[9] http://centerchurchonthegreen.org/history/crypt/

"Center Church on the Green – New Haven, CT." Center Church on the Green New Haven CT. Accessed February 15, 2018. http://www.centerchurchonthegreen.org/.

Connecticut Historical Commission, “Historic Resources Inventory: Buildings and Structures, 250 Temple Street.” State of Connecticut, n.d. Accessed February 23, 2018 at New Haven Museum.

Georgevich, M.R. and Deb Townshend. “Tales from the Crypt: A Cata-Blog of Stones and Stories from the Basement of Center Church.” Center Church Historian. Accessed February 23, 2018. http://ww.ctcryptkeeper.wordpress.com

Green (New Haven, CT): View with Old State House, Center Church, and Trinity Church. Painting. c. 1830. Yale University Library Digital Collections, Visual Resources Collection. http://hdl.handle.net/10079/digcoll/2099760.

Kelley, J.F. “Center Church (New Haven, CT). plan.” Photograph. Early Connecticut Meetinghouses, vol. 11., 1948. Yale University Library Digital Collections, Visual Resources Collection. http://hdl.handle.net/10079/digcoll/1871926

“New Haven Green (New Haven, CT): view with Old State House, Center Church, Trinity Church.” Image. 1839. Yale University Library Digital Collections, Visual Resources Collection. http://hdl.handle.net/10079/digcoll/1871139.

“New Haven Green and Temple Street (New Haven, CT): view looking north, with Center Church.” Photograph. c. 1900. Yale University Library Digital Collections, Visual Resources Collection. http://hdl.handle.net/10079/digcoll/1870502.

Rockey, John L. History of New Haven County, Connecticut. New Haven: W.W. Preston, 1892.

Summerson, John. Architecture in Britain, 1530-1830. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. 330.  

Warshauer, Matthew. “A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825.” Accessed February 25, 2018. https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog?f%5Boffice_id_ssim%5D%5B%5D=ON027&f%5Bstate_name_sim%5D%5B%5D=Connecticut&range%5Bdate_sim%5D%5Bbegin%5D=1817&range%5Bdate_sim%5D%5Bend%5D=1817

“Yale Indian Papers Project—Momaugin.” Yale University. Accessed February 23, 2018. https://yipp.yale.edu/bio/bibliography/momauguin