NEW PRESTON CONNECTICUT – Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church. Founded 1764 according to the sign in front of the church. The building was dedicated in 1822. The brickwork in the steeple is a different color and was painted to match, suggesting a fire or other damage and repairs along the way.
WARREN, CONNECTICUT – The Congregational Meeting House in Warren, Connecticut. Warren was carved out of Kent Connecticut in the 1780s.
The Warren town website provides the following history: “Warren was settled in 1737 as part of the Town of Kent. In 1750 a separate ecclesiastical society called the Society of East Greenwich was established and a church was founded in 1756. In 1786 Warren was incorporated as a separate town.
Even though for most of its history Warren has been an agricultural community, by 1810 Warren became known as an educational center with five private schools and an academy which produced 15 ministers and educators. Over the last two and a half centuries Warren’s population has fluctuated widely. By 1810 the town’s population had increased to 1100, but with the decline of agriculture and the local iron industry it reached an all-time low in 1930 with only 303 inhabitants.”
Wikipedia furnishes the following information on Warren: “As of the census[6] of 2000, there were 1,254 people, 497 households, and 353 families residing in the town. The population density was 47.7 people per square mile (18.4/km²). There were 650 housing units at an average density of 24.7/sq mi (9.5/km²).”
NEW PRESTON, CONNECTICUT – I’ve decided to photograph all of the churches in Litchfield County, Connecticut, very much working in the shadow of Walker Evans. The approach is frontal. You can see a similar esthetic in the “Small Town” images on my landscape gallery, and for that matter in 30 Rock taken on November 6. This is one of two Congregational churches in New Preston that serve the same parish (the other is the Stone Church). Captured at sunrise.
