Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House

{{short description|Historic church in Connecticut, United States}}

{{Infobox NRHP

| name = Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House

| nrhp_type2 = nrhp

| nrhp_type = nhldcp

| nocat = yes

| partof = Coltsville Historic District

| partof_refnum = 66000802

| image = Church of the Good Shepherd Hartford CT.JPG

| caption = Church of the Good Shepherd

| location = 155 Wyllys St., Hartford, Connecticut

| coordinates = {{coord|41|45|26|N|72|40|9|W|display=inline,title}}

| locmapin = Connecticut#USA

| built = {{start date|1867}}

| architect = Edward Tuckerman Potter

| architecture = Gothic

| added = February 20, 1975

| area = {{convert|9|acre|ha}}

| refnum = 75001925{{NRISref|2009a}}

}}

The Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House is an Episcopal church at 155 Wyllys Street in Hartford, Connecticut. It was commissioned by Elizabeth Jarvis Colt, the widow of Samuel Colt, and completed in 1867. The church and its associated parish house were designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter, and serve as a memorial to Samuel Colt and members of his family. The church and parish house were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975,{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=75001925}}|format=pdf|title=NRHP nomination for Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=20 December 2011}} and became a contributing property to the Coltsville Historic District in 2008.

Description and history

The Church of the Good Shepherd is located in Hartford's Coltsville area south of the downtown, on the southeast side of Wyllys Street just south of its junction with Charter Oak Avenue. It is a masonry structure, built out of Portland brownstone and Ohio sandstone. It is roughly T-shaped and has Gothic Revival styling. It has a steeply pitched polychrome slate roof, with parapeted gable ends that have crosses at the peaks. A square tower with buttresses rises at one of the crooks of the T, with a low crenellated battlement below the octagonal spire. The interior features a variety of stone types in the construction of the floors and columns, and has heavy chestnut timbers in the roof framing. The southwest entrance arch is carved with examples of the workers' tools used in the Samuel Colt's factory.

The church was commissioned in 1866 by Elizabeth Jarvis Colt, and serves as a memorial to her husband Samuel, who died in 1862, and three of their children who died in infancy.{{cite journal |last1=Granston |first1=David W. |title=Memory, Materiality, and Meaning: HARTFORD’S CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD |journal=Nineteenth Century, The Magazine of the Victorian Society in America |date=Spring 2020 |volume=40 |issue=1 |page=9 |url=https://victoriansociety.org/upload/NC-40-1.pdf |access-date=23 January 2025 |quote=In the Church of the Good Shepherd, Elizabeth Colt crafted an object of intense personal meaning, a monument that memorialized her husband and children while also serving the needs of a congregation.}} The parish house was built in 1895, also to a design by Potter, as a memorial to Colt's son, Caldwell Hart Colt, who died in 1894.{{cite journal |last1=Granston |first1=David W. |title=Memory, Materiality, and Meaning: HARTFORD’S CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD |journal=Nineteenth Century, The Magazine of the Victorian Society in America |date=Spring 2020 |volume=40 |issue=1 |page=11 |url=https://victoriansociety.org/upload/NC-40-1.pdf |access-date=23 January 2025 |quote=Within four months of Caldwell’s death she accepted plans by Edward Tuckerman Potter for a building that would preserve her son’s memory in his native city.}} Potter had come out of retirement to design this building. It continues the Gothic architectural detailing found on the church, but is more symmetrical in its massing.

One of the more prominent features on the second floor is an alcove memorial to Caldwell. This memorial features two brass cannons, which the vessel carried and the ship's bell. A large painting of Commodore Colt standing near the wheel on the deck of the Dauntless.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79611729/memorial/ |title= Noted Dauntless Yields To Storm. |work= Hartford Courant|place =Hartford, Connecticut |date=7 Feb 1915|page=13|accessdate=2021-06-15}}

File:Church of the Good Shepherd Interior, Hartford, CT (January 2025).jpg|View up the nave toward the chancel

File:Baptismal Font at Church of the Good Shepherd, Hartford, CT.jpg|Baptismal font memorial to Colt children

File:Good Shepherd Parish House Hartford CT.JPG|Parish house

File:Church of the Good Shepherd Parish House Stained Glass, Hartford, CT (January 2025).jpg|Parish house interior