Background
Henry M. Congdon was born in 1834 Brooklyn, United States.
Henry M. Congdon was born in 1834 Brooklyn, United States.
He was educated at Columbia College, the youth at the age of twenty was apprenticed by his father to the late John Priest, M. A., ecclesiologist and architect of Newburg, New York.
In 1859 after the latter’s death, Mr. Congdon joined John Littel for a brief period of partnership, sub¬sequently was associated with J. Cleveland Cady in preparing plans for the Brooklyn Academy of Science, but during the greater part of his long career, carried on an independent practice.
As might have been expected from his early training, Mr. Congdon chose to specialize in church design. His works in that field were many in number, and built in different cities in the eastern part of the country. Examples of his works: Calvary Church, Summit, N. J,, Trinity Church and Parish House at Torrington, Conn., Christ Church and Parish House, Ansonia, Conn., Grace Church at Elmira, N.Y. (*) and Christ Church, Portsmouth, N. H., also Episcopal Churches at Norwalk, Ohio, and Phillippsburg, Pa. While Mr. Congdon made his reputation in ecclesiastical work, he also planned buildings of other types among which were St. Mary's Free Hospital for Children and the Mercy House at Inwood, both in New York.
He was also an active member of the Brooklyn Chapter.