CV NEWS FEED // A group of former parishioners of St. Peter’s Church in New Britain, Connecticut, have filed a lawsuit to prevent the Archdiocese of Hartford from demolishing the 125-year-old church.

The Hartford Courant reported that the church, which features a 100-feet-tall steeple, was damaged in a 2024 New Jersey earthquake. Following an engineering assessment submitted by the archdiocese, the City of New Britain condemned the structure as unsafe.

The archdiocese pointed to the January 2024 collapse of First Congregational Church in New Britain, a church that was 50 years older than St. Peter Church.

Former parishioners, however, argue that the engineering report by Redfern Engineering was faulty. They are seeking to postpone the demolition until an independent structural engineer examines the building. They also argue that St. Peter could be repaired without excessive cost.

The Franklin Square Preservation Society, represented by business agent Dennis Kern, is leading the preservation effort. The group enlisted Cirrus Structural Engineering — the firm that assessed the First Congregational Church post-collapse — to review Redfern’s findings.

Although Cirrus did not inspect the building, engineer Elizabeth Acly critiqued the original report. 

“After careful review,” she wrote, “it is my professional opinion that the scope of the assessment, as documented by the report, was not of sufficient depth to substantiate the definitive conclusion that the building has sustained ‘substantial structural damage.’”

St. Peter Church has not been used in more than a year, and former parishioners attend the nearby St. Francis of Assisi parish, according to the Courant. St. Peter merged with two other parishes into the Divine Providence parish in 2017, and since 2022, it was only used for funerals, baptisms, Ash Wednesday services, and to serve meals for the homeless.

Kern told the Courant that the St. Peter’s Society, which was founded in the 1800s to preserve the parish, offered to pay for the independent study of the church that was proposed in the lawsuit. The church has not responded to the offer.