From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
First Congregational Church, Bristol, Conn. 99.
A large, Greek Revival frame church is seen across a broad green. This image is part of a series made by one of the three Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company photographers assigned to cover New England or upstate New York. The quest for images that would be saleable as postcards resulted in the documentation of small towns and small town life at the turn of the 20th century. As the photos were shot, the glass plates were promptly sent back to Belfast, Maine, and processed into postcards at the printing plant on High Street. Pictured is the First Congregational Church, built in 1833. The building's size, its location on Federal Hill, and architecture convey the pre-eminence of Bristol's Congregational parish at the time. The structure has a classical Greek Doric portico- this one heavy in its proportions - characteristic of Connecticut Congregational churches of the 1830 and 40s.
