Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House - Hartford, CT
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 41° 45.450 W 072° 40.133
18T E 693795 N 4625478
The High Victorian Gothic style Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House are located at 155 Wyllys Street in Hartford, CT.
Waymark Code: WM1538N
Location: Connecticut, United States
Date Posted: 10/07/2021
Views: 1
The Church of the Good Shepherd was commissioned by Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt as a memorial to her deceased husband, inventor and industrialist, Samuel Colt. The polychromatic church, characteristic of the High Victorian Gothic style, was designed by architect Edward Tuckermann Potter. The Good Shepherd Parish was founded in 1868 by Elizabeth Colt and construction of the church was completed in 1869.
The church is built of brownstone and is decorated with bands of light colored sandstone. It is built to a T shaped plan and covered with a decorative cross-gable roof. The northwest corner of the church features a smaller round tower with a band of connected Gothic style windows framed with light sandstone. This tower is connected to a much larger tower which has set of steps leading up to a entrances set within banded Gothic arches. Above is a single Gothic style window with a light sandstone lintel. Two such windows are located on the next level, followed by a circular window with dark and light banding, a large arched window beneath a gable roof. The tower is topped by a tapered hexagonal steeple.
The main block of the church has a two story high, three-part stained glass window framed by a Gothic style banded arch. Below the apex of the west facing gable is a rounded triangular window. A pair of smaller stained glass windows flank the central stained glass window.
The east side of the main block of the church has a one story high section set off from the main block by a slanted roof. There is a pavilion entrance on the southeast corner covered by a gable roof. Beyond the entrance is three sets of three Gothic style windows. Extending to the northwest is a second large gabled section with a pavilion entrance on the south west side and five tall windows on the gable end.
Parish House:
Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt, widow of inventor and industrialist Samuel Colt, commissioned Edward Tuckermann Potter, who designed the Church of the Good Shepherd, to construct the Parish House of the Church of the Good Shepherd as a memorial to her eldest son Caldwell Hart Colt who died in 1894. The High Victorian Gothic style Parish House has the same architectural style as the Church of the Good Shepherd and served as a Sunday school and recreation hall.
The Parish Center has the two part dedication over the northeast and northwest entrances. The entrances are inscribed:
Erected MDCCCXCV
In Memory of
Caldwell Hart Colt
by his mother
The Parish House is also polychromic, matching the elaborate design Church of the Good Shepherd. The symmetrical building is constructed of brownstone and is decorated with bands of light colored sandstone. In the center of the building is a projecting block with portico entrances supported by Corinthian columns on the NW and NE corners. In the center is a pair of windows set within a large polychromic Gothic arch. Flanking the center arch on the first level are a series of slender Gothic style windows that increase in size from smallest on the left and largest on the right. The second level has four sets of four connected Gothic style windows framed with sandstone. At the center of the roof is a huge polychrome arch inset with a stained glass window and topped with a cross. The ends of the building are rounded with Gothic style windows framed by sandstone banding.
The Parish House of the Church of the Good Shepherd now also serves as the home for the Metropolitan Community Church: Link