America was gripped in the throes of the most sanguinary of civil wars. In the state capital the streets resounded to the tread of martial feet. Anxious crowds of women and children gathered to read the daily bulletins of casualties from southern battlefields. Men everywhere questioned whether the nation, so tested, could "long endure".

But in the minds and hearts of a small group of Hartford residents the spirit and hope burned brightly -- hope for survival and the future, faith in the God of their fathers. Some were descendants of the original Plymouth colonists who had transplanted their religious beliefs from England and then on to Massachusetts and then to Connecticut.

In the midst of their bitter strife between the states, they planned an edifice which should be a beacon and a haven for future generations. This is the story of that church and the dedication of the founders "that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, for all men".

In the beginning this church was created by the necessities of the community. No one agency created it. In 1860, Hartford was a city of less than 30,000 people and Lord's Hill was a sparsely populated rural area of the city. In 1861 a neighborhood prayer meeting was organized, and two years later, a Bible class was under the direction of Professor Calvin E. Stowe, the husband of author Harriet Beecher Stowe.

On February 3, 1864, a meeting of seventeen citizens of what was now known as Asylum Hill, was held in the office of J.M. Allen at the American Asylum. The subsequent formation of the Asylum Hill Ecclesiastical Society and signing of the articles of association by twenty-nine persons was completed on June 25, 1864.

The building committee chose for its architect Patrick C. Keely of Brooklyn, an Irish-American, then fifty years of age. The choice of a Roman Catholic to design a Congregational Church was apparently a wide breach of pattern for the time. The architect's fees for the plans and design were $630.00 and there is no evidence that he supervised any part of the construction. Keely has been attributed with the design of more than 600 Roman Catholic churches in the country, according to the American Architect and Building News.

Maria Metcalf’s immediately successful Christian Education school for neighborhood youths ran into a space crunch at the old West Middle School – and that led to the construction of what we know today as the Drew Hall building – AHCC’s first sanctuary – and the founding of church itself. Construction of the current sanctuary commenced a short time later – a tremendous show of faith in the future by a small group of just about 100 families. The cornerstone was laid just a month after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. Horace Bushnell, whose idea it was that children should not come to Christianity from an adolescent conversion – but should be raised knowing what is good from the earliest years - personally selected the young Joe Twichell of Southington to carry on the work as AHCC’s first pastor.

Joseph Hopkins Twichell: An Alumnus of the Yale crew team and a recently discharged Civil War Chaplain, Twichell finished his divinity training at Andover Newton and launched a half century career of enlightened service to congregation and community.

James Voorhees: Left shortly after his arrival to stand with those of his parishioners who left their homes to fight World War I. Mortally wounded just two weeks after arriving in France, he died within months of his predecessor. We are mindful of his sacrifice and dedication.

Willis Howard Butler: The great preacher and distinguished gentleman from Princeton, Butler was called often by the President to preach at the White House. We are mindful of the power of a strong pulpit.

David McKeith Jr.: McKeith led the congregation through the War Years of the 1940s and under his leadership, AHCC expanded its facilities with the new parish house and Gross Memorial Chapel, to address the needs of a growing congregation.

Bernard Thomas Drew: Long-time pastor from Maine, who served from the late 1940s to 1973. Dr. Drew held us together here, in this place instead of moving to the suburbs like so many parishes did during those tough times.

Walter Drey Waggoner: The seminary president and author who began an intellectual renaissance within the congregation and under whom membership began to grow.

James Lambert Kidd: The preacher who brought together so many of the strengths of his predecessors and defied the odds, building this inner city congregation when the only growing congregational churches were in new suburban communities. He launched this congregation on the path to becoming one of the top 5 or 6 in the denomination.

Gary Lee Miller: We sit here today bursting at the seams because God sent us Gary Miller: a man of faith, a man of wisdom, a man of energy. Pastor, priest and prophet all in one. "I am awed at the possibilities; the responsibilities; the chances to matter."