The ASD played an important role in the formation of AHCC: I’ve so far identified positively four ASD employees as having been directly involved in the church’s formation, and the early meetings that discussed the need for the church took place in ASD offices.
There are three groups who would seem to qualify: the 17 people who attended the first meeting about forming a church; the 29 people who signed the society’s articles of association; and the 114 people who became founding members of the church. It would seem to be mostly a matter of perspective, and to that point it is interesting to note that Atwood Collins declared that the 17 people who attended that first meeting, “though they cannot mean much to present generation, they should be held in grateful memory by our church.”
Yes. I’ve identified three: a site on Asylum Avenue between Spring and Garden Streets; a site on Farmington Avenue near Imlay Street; and William W. Turner’s property on Asylum Avenue.
Probably in October 1864, but that isn’t certain. Permission to build was requested in August 1864, and Keely showed completed plans to a Courant reporter in the end of September 1864. The chapel was completed in March 1865, which means it was built in seven months after the initial petition for permission to build was filed. Likely work began as soon as permission to build was granted (still looking for that!), because construction would have gotten underway as much before winter as possible.
By April 3, 1865, but it is unclear if work on the church began before or after the chapel was finished. It does seem best to treat the chapel and church as two separate phases of the same project because the chapel was put into use as soon as it was finished, but that distinction has limited utility in determining when ground was broken on the church building.
Maybe? The Courant didn’t report on any groundbreaking or cornerstone ceremony, and the church’s histories don’t mention anything about it, either. Three corners of the chapel remain visible, so at some point I’ll go take a look.
Probably, albeit not associated with the church. A number of the staff at the American School for the Deaf, and they likely held services for the students.