Built 1751 Opened 1751 Phone +1 860-974-1476 | NRHP Reference # 77001413 Area 4,000 m² Added to NRHP 19 September 1977 | |
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Location CT 97, Abington, Connecticut, in town of Pomfret, Connecticut Address Pomfret Center, CT 06259, USA Architectural style Greek Revival architecture Similar Quassy Amusement Park, Lake Compounce, Beardsley Zoo, Mystic Aquarium & Institute, Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk | ||
The Abington Congregational Church is a historic church on Connecticut Route 97 in the Abington village of Pomfret, Connecticut. Built in 1751, it is the oldest ecclesiastical building in the State of Connecticut. It is one of the few surviving examples of the peg and beam construction typical of 18th century New England. The building was significantly enlarged and altered in the 1830s, giving it its present Greek Revival styling. In 1977 it was included on the National Register of Historic Places.
A parsonage for the church was built in 1851, and an adjacent parish hall was built in 1951. Today it is the spiritual home to a small, but thriving congregation, and is member of the United Church of Christ.
The church's website[1] includes records of interest to genealogists and historians. The Old Cemetery of the Abington Church was used from 1760 to 1900, and includes gravestones of 82 American Revolutionary War soldiers. The New Cemetery includes many Civil War gravemarkers, and is still in use today. Lists from both cemeteries are included on the church's website, as well as a record of all Civil War veterans and units from Pomfret, Connecticut.
The current pastor is the Reverend Bruce A. Hedman, Ph.D., who graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary and was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in 1980. He served churches in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in Union, Connecticut and Hampton, Connecticut, before coming to Abington in 1988.