Welcome to the Church at the Crossroads!

Parish History

Grace and St. Peter’s had a tripartite history. Its story stretches back to a time when Hamden was little more than a dusty crisscrossing of paths in the forest.

The older of the two original parishes was Grace Church. Grace Church was founded by a charter granted by the state of Connecticut on March 16, 1790. Grace Church’s first building was located on what is today Whitney Avenue, several miles north of its current location. In 1820 a new church was built in 1820 on the spot where Hamden Memorial Town Hall parking lot is. The church remained there from 1820 until 1996 when it was moved to its present location on Dixwell Avenue.

Many Grace Church rectors were scholars. From 1843-1873 the parish was the home of The Rectory School, a boys’ boarding school. When the parish built a new rectory, the old school building was donated to the town of Hamden and became its first library.

St. Peter’s-on-the-Hill was founded in 1958 when a group of parishioners from St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in New Haven were granted permission to form their own church. The group met for two years at the Community Branch Library in Hamden until the dedication of its new church building on October 2, 1960. The new St. Peter’s-on-the-Hill church was located on Benham Street in Hamden. The parish grew, and eventually a fellowship hall was added to the original one-story building. By 1978, attendance figures were dropping and the parish was being led by only a part-time vicar. Eucharist was celebrated once a month. During the rest of the month, Sunday Morning Prayer service was led by the lay people. Attendance continued to drop and finances were in poor shape. In 1983 the Diocese intervened, and in 1984 a full-time vicar was appointed. Now on stable footing, the congregation continued to grow throughout the 1980’s.

Uniting the Two Parishes

In 1990, the rector of Grace Church announced his retirement. During that year, the two parishes made plans for uniting. Each parish would benefit from a merger. Grace Church was had a seriously declining membership and few children to grow the congregation. The parish was, however, blessed with a relatively large endowment, a larger building, and a pipe organ. St. Peter’s–on-the-Hill was facing the reverse situation. Their parish had families with young children and an active Sunday School program, but little money.

The two congregations began to worship together on July 1st at Grace Church. On September 9th they voted to merge the two parishes. By October the decision was ratified by the Diocese.

Thus Grace and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church was formed in 1990. Today Grace and St. Peter’s is a thriving church community with community outreach and links with the Yale Divinity School.

The parish sold the Benham Street property after the merger to the Coptic Orthodox Church and now makes it home in the historic building on Dixwell Avenue. The parish became financially independent from the Diocese in 1995.