Huntington Street Baptist Church has a rich history, built by John Bishop in 1843. The church was built by a Universalist congregation and then later purchased by a Baptist congregation in 1849. The new Baptist congregation was led by Jabez Smith Swan, formed by members of the First Baptist Church. For the past 175 years, Huntington Street Baptist Church has maintained a consistent gospel-presence in the heart of downtown New London.

As of 2023, Huntington Street Baptist Church made the decision to partner with the North American Mission Board and Send Network. The North American Mission Board sends thousands of missionaries, chaplains, and church planters on mission through evangelism and compassion in North America. The Send Network is the largest church planting network in North America, sending missionaries to spread the gospel, respond to brokenness and bring about restorative healing. Through this partnership, and the commitment to seeing a new work take place in New London, Huntington Street Baptist Church made the decision to re-plant as a brand-new church. At the beginning of 2024, Pastor Rocco Gammone Jr. was endorsed as a church planter with the North American Mission Board’s Send Network, and hired as the new pastor/church re-planter of Huntington Street Baptist Church.

As of April 2024, Huntington Street Baptist Church started the process of re-planting as a new church, On The Rock Community Church. Our goal is to officially launch as a brand-new church on Easter 2025. We desire On the Rock Community Church to be a church that is committed to the passionate pursuit of God’s glory, through diligent teaching, devoted discipleship, and dedication to serving our community in the name of Jesus Christ. We seek to bring new life to New London, Connecticut through the life-changing message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. On The Rock Community Church will seek to build upon the solid foundation that has been laid, dedicated to glorifying Christ, who is the Chief Cornerstone. Jesus says in Matthew 7:24-25, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”