St. Peter's Kierch

The early German community of Middletown is represented by this handsome brownstone meetinghouse-style church with its early-nineteenth-century limestone and marbletrimmed tower. The church's south and east walls facing the streets are of cut brownstone with perfectly shaped voussoirs over the great windows and door, while the north and west walls at the rear are of rubble. The interior has been reoriented to the conventional axial plan, but evidence of the original meeting plan can be seen in the gap between the pair of windows on the north wall where the pulpit would have been placed opposite the entrance on the long wall. Farther toward the river at Spring and Union streets is the present St. Peter's Church, a handsome brick Victorian built in 1877 with references to German Gothic of the mid-nineteenth century. It stands amidst a cluster of spectacular Richardsonian and Queen Anne houses that attest to the continuing wealth of the community after the Civil War.