Drawing by Elaine Matthias)
St. John's Episcopal Church (on
right) and its neighboring North Guilford Congregational Church
(on left), together with the burial ground (foreground) at the
brow of the hill (where the earliest gravestone is dated 1730),
occupy Meeting House Hill which is listed on the National Register
of Historic Sites. The two churches have also been listed among
the most historically significant and beautiful churches in Connecticut.
St.
John's Episcopal Church dates back to 1747 when a group of dissidents
left the North Guilford Congregational Church to form a new congregation
centered on Church of England rituals and prayers. They were
mostly lumbermen who came from south Guilford for weeks at a
time and made do in makeshift camps while they cut and dressed
timber for a living.
By 1754 some of them had chosen
to settle in the area and they were able to build their first
church-a small meeting house adjacent to the pond that is south
of the present cemetery. As "non-conformists," they
were required to pay a tithe to the "established" Congregational
Church, a practice that generated much friction between the two
groups over the next 20 years until finally it ended when
no one could be found to collect the tax.
By 1812 St. John's had developed
a solid relationship with its neighboring church. The Congregational
Church donated sufficient land at the top of Meeting House Hill
for St. John's to move to that site and build a new church. The
new building was a simple rectangular structure, without either
apse or chancel, both traditional features of Episcopal churches.
It did have a small steeple to identify it as a church, but did
not have a permanent foundation, standing only on large stones.
But the ensuing years brought changes.
A gallery was built along the inside walls in 1817. In 1842 the
top section of the steeple was removed and replaced with a belfry.
An organ was installed a few years later. The chancel was added
in 1870, along with a center aisle. Gothic arches were added
to the windows. These changes brought the small wooden church
closer to the Anglican tradition. In 1890 the steeple got yet
another makeover after it was destroyed by lightning.
143 years after it was first built
the church finally got its foundation. An undercroft was dug
beneath the main structure to house Sunday School classes, a
meeting room and rest rooms-also a new furnace. In 2008, St.
John's completed a four-year restoration project that addressed
needs in all parts of the church: drainage work, an outdoor handicap
access, lighting and security features, kitchen renovation, and
a major facelift to the main part of the church including an
interior handicap access to the parish hall.
