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07/15/2020 08:53 AMIn Essex, two church buildings have been given new life as private residences and one is being used by nonsectarian groups from the community. The most recent church building in town to be sold has become a private business.
This rebirth of historic church spaces is being driven by sharp national and local declines in church membership. With dwindling members, more and more congregations are burdened with the expensive upkeep of large, old church buildings.
The most recent local example is the former Ivoryton Congregational Church at 57 Main Street, which was founded in 1888. With 25 remaining members, the church held its last service on Oct. 1, 2017, with a plan to hold services at the First Congregational Church in Essex.
After worshiping at the new site for about a year, the members “made the decision to close and end the life of the church and they basically dispersed to different churches in the area,” said Reverend Ken Peterkin of the First Congregational Church in Essex.
As for the building, it has undergone a transformation into Privé Swiss, a business offering wellness and health care services.
“My wife and I were driving by…we were a little sad to see that history go, it sort of be erased, the beautiful worship space that was there,” said Peterkin. “But we can’t be surprised very much because church buildings are being closed around the nation in a startling pace. So, it’s nothing particular to our area, it’s across denominational boundaries and other states as well.”
Church buildings that are left after the departure of a congregation are often steeped in the history of the town in which they were built, and those in Essex are no different.
“What we are seeing is several of these former parishes are turning to rehabilitation, and that is selling the structure, and the people that are moving in are trying to retain the historic look, but also using adaptive reuse [techniques] to make it much more modern,” said Melissa Josefiak, director of the Essex Historical Society.
One prime example of this rehabilitation is a former Methodist church in Essex that was converted to a private residence. It is currently on the market for $1.3 million.
The structure, built in 1849, is at the corner of Prospect and Main streets. When the Methodist Society disbanded, it was given to the Essex Fire Engine Company in 1945. There were several transfers of ownership over the years, with it being used as a warehouse at one point.
Today, it stands transformed into a desirable living space, albeit with the pulpit on the main level and a former steeple converted into a rooftop patio, with “breathtaking” views, according to the William Pitt/Sotheby’s listing.
The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church, organized in 1898 in Ivoryton, is another example of a local church building that is now a private dwelling.
The Centerbrook Meetinghouse at 51 Main Street in Centerbrook, which was built in the 1730s, is one of the oldest church buildings in Middlesex County.
“When the last parishioner realized that it was not sustainable as a church, they put it on the market,” said Essex First Selectman Norman Needleman.
Recognizing the building’s historical importance in the founding of Essex, Needleman, Herb Clark of the Clark Group, and local accountant Keith Crehan purchased the building in 2006.
Largely unchanged structurally, it is now used by local community groups such as the Ivoryton Playhouse and Community Music School, among others.
As far as changes to the former Ivoryton Congregational Church, there have been many, but Privé Swiss owner Heidi Kunzli has kept key stylistic features of the church building intact. On the interior, details include stained-glass windows on the main sanctuary wall and exposed Adirondack-style beams and woodwork. On the exterior, she kept some Victorian woodwork that was discovered after removing old aluminum siding.
She also used white cedar shingles “to be in keeping with the playhouse and the little Episcopal church up the street. I wanted to continue with that look, then again I wanted to give it a modern twist.”
After what she describes as a “long journey” in updating a building to modern day standards, Kunzli says she is proud of what she has accomplished.
“I’m a solo female entrepreneur. My purpose on this planet is to help people. This area in Connecticut and this church have given me the opportunity in that respect, and [to] serve more people,” she said.
Josefiak highlights the importance to the community of people like Kunzli, and other owners of former churches in town in continuing the historical legacy of these buildings with their adaptive reuses of them.
“It’s beneficial to the neighborhood that those historic structures remain a part of the community,” said Josefiak. “Sometimes you have to make compromises. It’s rehabilitation to make them current for modern needs rather than ultimately a preservation. But a historian does not want to see the building taken down or removed from the community’s streetscape.
“So, places like [the former] Ivoryton Congregational Church and [the] Centerbrook [Meetinghouse], they will have a community aspect, so they retain some of that house of worship role in the community because it’s a place that supports the [towns]people, their needs, as a group for [the] community,” adds Josefiak.
In the last two decades, national church membership saw a decline of 70 percent, according to 2018 survey data from the analytics firm Gallup.
“Churches around the nation are all suffering this decline,” Peterkin said. “It’s not unusual whatsoever. There are many, many stories and lots of research regarding the decline in worshipping folks and membership. This is indicative of a larger issue.”
The mindset of a new generation is a defining factor in the decline of church memberships.
Gallup indicates that millennials are less likely to identify with a religion than older Americans and for those who are religious, they are less likely to formally belong to a church.