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M. L.
Gc 974.401 C76w 1851863
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01100 7751
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/someoldtimemeeti00wigh_0
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FARMINGTON CHURCH SPIRE
Some Old Time Meeting Houses of the
Connecticut Valley
By CHARLES ALBERT WIGHT, B. A.
Minister of the Congregational Church in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts
Copyright 1911 by CHARLES A. WIGHT Chicopee Falls, Mass.
THE RICH PRINT Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts
Foreword
The white meeting houses of the Connecticut Valley were familiar objects to the writer of this book in his boyhood, and, wherever he has gone since, he has carried with him a mental picture of these fine old houses of worship. Upon his return to the region three years ago for ministerial service, he conceived the idea of perpetuating by pen and picture some of the best examples of these structures.
The difficulty of deciding what examples to include and what to exclude in the treatment of his subject has been almost as great as that experienced by some of the first settlements in setting a stake for the meeting house lot. The governing principle has been the illustration of the churches built between 1780 and 1850. A few houses of worship built in the earlier periods of the history of the region are included, and the pen sketches are meant to tell the story of meeting house building in the Connecticut Valley from the beginning down to the erection of the latest examples of Colonial buildings. Many worthy examples have been omitted, and a few houses of worship have been included whose architectural value is small, but which for other reasons the author has been pleased to use in the illustration of his subject. It will be seen that almost every variety of meeting house known to the Connecticut Valley prior to 1850 is represented in the following pages.
The homes of the men and women by whom the houses of worship illustrated in this book were built are rapidly being occupied by people of other races and other ideas. If his effort to put into permanent
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form the old time houses of worship in the Connecticut Valley shall, even to a small degree, impress future occupants of the region with the value of the institu- tions and the nobility of character of the race that created the old New England, the writer will be amply compensated for his labors.
One of the compensations of his work has been the correspondence which the author has had with a large number of interesting people, especially the ministers of the churches represented in the book, who have been most obliging in their efforts to render him assistance in gathering materials for his volume. To the more than five hundred persons, who generous- ly subscribed for his book in advance of publication, the author is indebted for the freedom from anxiety as to the financial issue of his enterprise which he has enjoyed in the prosecution of his labors.
He is much indebted to Mr. Albert W. Buckley, art director of the Springfield Photo-Engraving Company, for the fine workmanship displayed in the halftones, and to Mr. Lester D. Rich, of Chicopee Falls, Mass., for his faithful and successful efforts to put into effect the author's ideas in the printing and binding of the book.
He has gained valuable information from a large number of historical addresses, town histories, works on architecture, town records, and church manuals.
To all who have in any way aided him in his un- dertaking he wishes to express his sense of obligation and his thanks.
Easter 1911
C. A. W.
TO her who in the morning of her young womanhood became my wife and ever since has been my constant and efficient helper in the work of the Christian ministry, this volume is affectionately and gratefully dedicated. Easter 1911. Charles A. Wight.
REVEREND PHILIP S. MOXOM, D. D., SPRINGFIELD, MASS., MR. CHARLES STILLMAN, NEW YORK, COLONEL H. L. WILLIAMS, NORTHAMPTON, MASS., AND MR. I. H. PAGE, CHICOPEE FALLS, MASS., FRIENDS OF THE AUTHOR, KINDLY PERMIT HIM TO MENTION THEM AS PATRONS OF HIS BOOK.
Index
PAGE
The Genesis of the Old Time Meeting Houses 1
Old First Church in Northampton, Mass. 17
The Colrain Pulpit 29
First Church of Christ, Springfield, Mass. 31
The Old Square Pew, Ludlow, Mass. 41
First Church of Christ, Hartford, Conn. .
45
Second Church of Christ, Hartford, Conn. 51
The Church in Hadley, Mass. 57
Sketch of the Hatfield Church . 63
Meeting Houses in South Hadley, Mass. 73
Congregational Church, Granby, Mass. . 87
Congregational Church, Williamsburg, Mass. . 89
Congregational Church, Enfield, Mass. 91
Old White Church, West Springfield, Mass.
95
First Church of Christ in Longmeadow, Mass. 101
Some Churches in Chicopee, Mass. . 107
First Congregational Church, Easthampton, Mass. 117
The Old Church in Ashfield, Mass. 119
Congregational Church, Enfield, Conn. 121
Congregational Church, East Haddam, Conn. 123
First Church of East Hartford, Conn. 125
The Congregational Church in Farmington, Conn. 129
The Wethersfield Meeting House 133
Old Lyme, Conn. 137
The Old Town Meeting House, Rockingham, Vt. 141
Illustrations
The Farmington Spire
Frontispiece FACING PAGE
Spire of Old South Church, Boston
2
First Church Erected in Conn. 3
Title Page of Builder's Book 4
One of the Copper Plates in Builder's Book
5
Interior of Old Deerfield Church 8
Town Hall Built next to the Church
9
Old South Church, Hallowell, Me. 10
Congregational Church, Montague, Mass. 11
Copper Weathercock 14
Congregational Church, Southampton, Mass. 15
First Church, Northampton, Mass. . 17
Third Meeting House, Northampton, Mass. 20
Jonathan Edwards 22
Interior of First Church, Northampton, Mass. 24 Elm Set Out by Jonathan Edwards 26
Unitarian Church, Northampton, Mass. . 27
The Colrain Pulpit 29
First Church of Christ, Springfield, Mass. 31
The First Meeting House, Springfield, Mass. 33
Third Meeting House, Springfield, Mass. 34
Rooster and Osgood Chair 36
The Ginger Cookies . 40 . Old Square Pew, Ludlow, Mass. 42
First Church of Christ, Hartford, Conn. 46 · Interior of First Church, Hartford, Conn. 48 First Church Parish House, Hartford, Conn. . 49
Second Church of Christ, Hartford, Conn. 52 Interior of Second Church, Hartford, Conn. . 54 Church and Town Hall, Hadley, Mass. . 59 Church and Old Elm, Hatfield, Mass. 63
Page from Sermon of Rev. Joseph Lyman, D. D. 64
Sophia Smith, Founder of Smith College 65
The Four Ionic Columns, Hatfield, Mass.
66
Rev. John M. Greene, D. D.
67
The Woods Memorial Window, Hatfield, Mass. 70 First Meeting House of Second Congregational Church, Holyoke, Mass. · 73
The Second Meeting House, South Hadley, Mass. 74
The White Church, South Hadley, Mass. 76 · Mary Lyon, Founder of Mt. Holyoke College 80
Mary Lyon at 48 82
Congregational Church, Granby, Mass. 87
Congregational Church, Williamsburg, Mass. 88
Before and After, Williamsburg, Mass. 89
Congregational Church, Enfield, Mass. 92
The Old White Church, West Springfield, Mass. 95
First Meeting House, West Springfield, Mass. 98
The Old White Church on the Village Green, Longmeadow, Mass. 104
First Congregational Church, Chicopee, Mass. 106
Margaret Belcher's Sketch of Second Congre- gational Church, Chicopee, Mass. 107
Second Congregational Church, Chicopee Falls, Mass. 108
Map of Chicopee Falls 109
Methodist Church, Chicopee Falls, Mass. .
110
George S. Taylor 111
From the Chicopee Journal 112 The John Brown Letter 113 First Congregational Church, Easthampton, Mass. 117 ·
The Old Church, Ashfield, Mass. ·
118
The Beautiful Spire, Ashfield, Mass. 119 ·
Congregational Church, Enfield, Conn. 120 ·
Interior of Enfield Church 121
Congregational Church, East Haddam, Conn. 122
Interior of East Haddam Church
123
First Church, East Hartford, Conn. 125
Congregational Church, Farmington, Conn. 128
Interior of Farmington Church
130
Congregational Church, Wethersfield, Conn. 132
The Beautiful Colonial Meeting House, Old Lyme, Conn. 137
The Old Town Meeting House, Rockingham, Vt. 140 Interior of Rockingham Church Showing High Pulpit 141 ·
Interior of Rockingham Church 144 ·
The Genesis of the Old Time Meeting House
Spires whose fingers point to Heaven .- Wordsworth.
D URING the last century the stately white meeting house with its tapering spire was a familiar object in many of the Connecticut valley towns. Standing, as it often did, in the midst of noble elms, it presented a most graceful appearance. Many of these houses of worship have been preserved and are loved and admired by those who worship in them, or reside in their neighborhood. Some of them have been destroyed by fire, while a few have been taken down to make way for modern structures or the needs of the business world.
One who is familiar with the old buildings of the Kennebec valley in Maine, Portsmouth in New Hamp- shire, Salem, Boston and Plymouth in eastern Massa- chusetts, and the towns and cities of the Connecticut valley, knows that a hundred years ago a common type of domestic and public buildings prevailed in all of these places. The fact is readily explained. The dwellers in all of these places were descendants of the first settlers of New England, the Pilgrims and Puri- tans. The earliest inhabitants of the Connecticut valley constituted the first wave of that tide of emigration, which swept ever westward from the Atlantic sea- board, until it had spread over the Mohawk valley and the Mississippi basin, crossed the Rockies and the Sierras, and reached the Pacific ocean.
The same conditions prevailed from the beginning in all of the early settlements of New England. To write a history of architecture in New England during
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the first hundred and fifty years after the landing of the Pilgrims on the shores of the New World, would be to give a narrative of primeval forests, dangers from Indians, fierce struggle with winter cold, scarcity of almost everything that makes human life comfortable, and lack of skilled architects and builders.
Almost all of the early settlements of the Connec- ticut valley were laid out on the same plan. There was a single long street, sometimes as much as three hundred feet wide, in the midst of which was a common, extending the whole length of the street. The church usually stood in the center of the common and the houses were built on either side of the street, the barns and out buildings being ranged back of the houses. The river was usually about half a mile back from the street on one side, while at about the same distance back from the other side was the swamp or range of hills. In many instances these towns remain to this day unchanged in plan. In later times the church was moved from the common and placed on one side of the street in line with the houses. Enfield, Connecticut, and Longmeadow, Hadley, and Hatfield in Massachu- setts, are well known examples of the way in which almost all of the early settlements of the Connecticut valley were laid out.
In the construction of their houses and public buildings the first settlers used such materials as were at hand and built with special reference to warmth, space and protection from wild beasts and Indians. Even the meeting house was erected with a view to warding off assaults from the savages. The turret at the top of the house of worship served as a watch tower. The following is taken from a letter written in 1699 by Samuel Smith, of Hadley, Massachusetts: "Ye firste Meetinge House was solid mayde to with- stand ye wicked onsaults of ye Red Skins. Its Foun-
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SPIRE OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH, BOSTON, WHICH HAD AN IMPORTANT INFLUENCE UPON LATER DESIGNS FOR CHURCH SPIRES IN NEW ENGLAND, CHURCH BUILT 1729
24900
THE FIRST CHURCH ERECTED IN CONNECTICUT
dations was laide in ye feare of ye Lord, but its Walls was truly laide in ye feare of ye Indians, for many and grate was ye Terrors of em. I do mind me y't alle ye able-bodyed Men did work thereat, and ye olde and feeble did watch in towns to espie if any Savages was in hidinge neare, and every Man kept his Musket right to his hande".
The first houses and churches were built of logs taken from the forest. The buildings which succeeded these first structures were strictly utilitarian in design, little or no attempt having been made at ornamenta- tion. The time came, however, when the prosperity of the people enabled them to erect more pretentious houses, and public buildings were constructed with some regard to architectural principles and effect. A large number of old houses may still be seen in New England, which were built in this period. They are square structures, extremely plain on the outside, ex- cept for the front doorways, which are characterized by their classical style of architecture. A large number of such houses were built in the last half of the eighteenth century.
Some of these houses were highly ornamented within. In recent years there has been a marked tendency toward external ornamentation in the con- struction of buildings of every kind. It was consistent with the character of the earlier generations in New England to avoid external ornamentation in the building of their houses and make the interior as beauti- ful as the materials and means at their disposal per- mitted. The highly ornamented doorway was a hint of the beauty and refinement to be looked for within. It is interesting to note that our Puritan ancestors in the construction of their houses copied the ornamen- tations of heathen temples in the making of their door- ways. The beautiful doorways of many of the old
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houses still standing in New England are a copy of architectural embellishments used by the ancients in the construction of their idol temples.
In the main, our ancestors were Roman in their architectural tastes. The architect Minard Lafevre, has written, "Architecture owes its origin to necessity", and it is certain that the utilitarian motive controlled in the first building enterprises of our forefathers.
The builders of the early domestic structures made much use of certain books, which may be de- scribed as builders' assistants. The names of some of these were, "Builders' Companions", "Gentlemen's and Builders' Repositories", "Builders' Jewels". A book of this kind was published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, 1797, by Asher Benjamin, a carpenter. It contained illustrations and descriptions for the use of builders and was an attempt, as one writer has observed, to translate the Classic into the vernacular. The de- signs of Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren were adapted to the needs of the region. Benjamin's book had a large influence in shaping the domestic architect- ure of western New England in the first half of the nineteenth century. The book also contained designs for churches.
A copy of one of the best of these books, "The City and Country Builders' and Workman's Treasury of Designs", is owned by Miss Mary H. Carter, of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. It was published in London in 1756 and is a large volume of many pages. It contains plates and descriptions of the ornamental parts of buildings, monuments, tables, book cases, time pieces, pulpits, altar pieces, iron gates, and so forth. The copper plates are very fine. This book was owned and used by Miss Carter's grandfather, Elias Carter, who died in 1864, and also by her great grandfather, Timothy Carter, who died in 1845. They were both
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The CITY and COUNTRY
BUILDER's and WORKMAN's TREASURY of DESIGNS : Or the ART of DRAWING and WORKING
The Ornamental PARTS of
ARCHITECTURE.
Illuftrated by upwards of Four Hundred Grand Defigns, neatly engraved on One Hundred and Eighty-fix COPPER - PLATES, for
Piers,
Pavements,
Obelifques,
Gates,
Frets,
Pedeftals, for
Doors,
Gulochi's,
Sun-Dials,
Windows,
Pulpits,
Bufto's, and
Niches,
Types,
Stone Tables,
Buffets,
Altar-Pieces,
Book-Cafes,
Cifterns,
Monuments,
Cielings, and
Chimney-Pieces,
Fonts,
Iron Works.
Tabernacle-Frames,
Proportioned by ALIQUOT PARTS.
With an APPENDIX of Fourteen PLATES of Truffes for Girders and Beams, different Sorts. of Rafters, and a Variety of Roofs, &c.
To which are prefixed,
The Five Orders of Columns, according to ANDREA PALLADIO; whofe Members are proportioned by ALIQUOT PARTS, in a more cafy Manner than has yet been done.
The WHOLE interfperfcd
With fure RULES for working all the Varieties of Raking Members in Pediments, Modillions, &c.
The like, for the immediate Ufe of WORKMEN, never publifhed before, in any Language.
By B. L.
LONDON, Printed for S. HARDING : ' And Sold by B. DOD, in Ave-Mary-Lane ; and J. MARKS, on the Pavement in St. Martin's-Lave. 1756.
TITLE PAGE OF A BUILDER'S BOOK OWNED AND USED BY TIMOTHY CARTER. BUILDER, IN THE FIRST DECADES OF THE LAST CENTURY,
AND ALSO BY HIS SON, ELIAS CARTER, WHO DIED IN 1864.
Piers for Gates at the
Entrance's;
into Palace's &c.
Place
XVILL
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779
E
84
6
7+
41
51
5A
3
4+
4+
2
2
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2.
Fig I
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Fu MI
By M' Gibles! "
C:
By Inigo Jones at Windsor Castle.
24
By y Lord Burlington at Chiswick
Jem Plan
The Measures to the Principal and Particular Parts of each. Pier Invented by Batty Langley.
ONE OF THE COPPER PLATES IN THE CAR ARTER BOOK
= Tho! Langley Sculp
Fig.
builders, Elias Carter, having built several fine churches in and near Worcester, Massachusetts. The accompa- nying illustrations give a good idea of the book.
When the first settlers had erected their houses, they next gave attention to the construction of the meeting house. Not long after came the school house, and still later the town hall. Doubtless the promptness with which the people of some of the secondary towns proceeded to build a meeting house and engage a minister was due in part to the fact that grants of privileges to establish a plantation were made upon the express condition that the inhabitants settle and support "a learned Orthodox minister of good con- versation". Like the first houses of the settlers, the meeting houses were small rude structures made of logs squared at the ends. In rare instances they were built of timber, laboriously sawn by hand. One of the earliest of these meeting houses is described as being twenty six feet long, eighteen feet wide, nine feet in the clear, and having two windows, a door and a chimney. In this particular house there was no pulpit and only rude benches for seats.
As the settlements grew in size and wealth the first structures erected for religious worship were set aside for other purposes, or taken down, and more commodious buildings constructed in their place.
In most towns the second meeting house was a severely plain structure made of sawn timber. It was square, with a roof of pyramidal form. On the apex was a small cupola in which the bell was hung, the rope hanging down in the broad aisle. It was the ex- ception that a bell actually hung in the turret. The inhabitants in many places were called together for worship by sounding a trumpet, beating a drum, or blowing a conch shell. These houses of worship were "decently seated". There might be four windows
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in each side; opposite the door was the pulpit. The men sat in the broad aisle at the right of the minister as he faced the congregation, and the women at the left.
The third class of meeting houses erected in New England assumed much larger proportions than those which preceded them and considerable attention was given to ornamentation. Some of these later structures had two rows of windows in each side and a tall orna- mented steeple surmounted by a weather vane. The third meeting house erected in Springfield, Massa- chusetts, was a good example of this style of buildings.
Most of the fine examples of Colonial meeting houses in the Connecticut valley and other parts of New England were erected in the closing years of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth. The work done by the builders in this period com- mands our admiration and affection. The columns, pilasters, and entablatures used in ornamenting the buildings are exceedingly beautiful and show excellent taste. The committee appointed by the First Parish, Hatfield, Massachusetts, in 1849, to erect the new meeting house were instructed to have a portico built in front supported by four Ionic columns. In many instances the façade was a remarkable creation.
In the nineteenth century the increase of wealth led, as was inevitable, to a reaction from the ascetic ideas and practices of the early settlers of the country.
Love of the beautiful, a quality with which the Creator has endowed men, began to find expression in the homes and public edifices of the people. The plain and almost barn like houses of worship, which had served the purpose of the people in the latter part of the century before, now gave place to much more pre- tentious buildings. In many instances the old structure was too small for the increased congregation.
The builders of the new meeting houses were men of taste and skill in their profession. When the
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project of a new house of worship arose it might happen that some one of the parties interested had seen, while on a journey to Boston, or elsewhere, a stately meeting house, which he had admired and now recollected. This became the pattern with more or less modification, according to the necessities of the case, of the new house of worship. When the third meeting house in Northampton was planned a com- mittee was appointed to go and view several notable houses of worship.
It has been stated that the stately and highly or- namented steeples of many of the old time meeting houses of New England have no family relation to the house of worship itself. The impression also prevails to some extent that Puritan ideas and influences con- trolled in making many of the houses extremely plain both outside and within. It seems more probable that the governing influence in the case was the limit- ed means at the disposal of the builders. Their fi- nancial resources were, in most instances, not enough to enable them to ornament the entire structure. Hence the main body of the church was made ex- tremely plain, and an effort was put forth to make the front and the steeple as beautiful as possible under the circumstances. In rare instances the entire build- ing, especially the interior, was highly ornamented. A good example of this class of buildings is the Unitarian Church in Deerfield, Massachusetts, the interior of which is most elaborate in decoration and furnishing.
About the time of the building of the meeting house in Northampton, which stood on "Meeting House Hill" from 1812 to 1876, Isaac Damon came to Northampton from New York, where he had studied under the well known architect Ithiel Towne. Although only in his twenty-eighth year he was engaged to design
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the new meeting house. This was his first independent work. His special work was bridge building and he designed a large number of bridges, nearly all of the bridges across the Connecticut, a half dozen over the Penobscot and some over the Mohawk, the Hudson and the Ohio, having been designed and built by him.
The church which Damon built in Northampton was the largest and most elaborate of any in western Massachusetts. It seated nearly two thousand people. He also built the stately house of worship of the First Parish of Springfield, which still stands on Court Square. At least a dozen of the houses of worship in western Massachusetts were designed by him. He ex- erted as great an influence upon the ecclesiastical archi- tecture of the region as did Benjamin upon the domestic.
The first meeting houses were built not only with reference to purposes of religious worship, but also for general public use. The second story of the meeting house in Springfield was used for a time for storing grain. The first town meetings were held in the meeting house. The representatives of fifty towns, who met in Hatfield in the August Convention that preceded the Shays' Rebellion and drew up their list of "grievances", assembled in the Hatfield meeting house. There is record of murder trials having been held in the meeting house.
In some instances when the second house of worship was erected the first was used as a school house. It became the custom later to erect a town house along side of the meeting house. The style of architecture was much the same in the case of both buildings, except for the steeple which adorned the house of worship.
In the case of most of the meeting houses erected in the first decades of the last century the main portion of the building, like the older houses of worship, was
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By permission of Frances and Mary Allen
INTERIOR OF CHURCH, OLD DEERFIELD, MASS. CHURCH BUILT 1824. THE MAHOGANY PULPIT IS LOWER THAN WHEN FIRST BUILT. ONLY THE SQUARE PEWS AGAINST THE WALLS ARE RETAINED
TOWN HALL BUILT NEXT TO THE CHURCH. HATFIELD. MASS.
extremely plain and of a primitive type. As a rule, it was a rectangular oblong structure, built for the most part of wood, one or two stories high, and fitted with plain oblong windows. It had a square tower in front for entrance, surmounted by a small cupola for a bell, terminating usually in a slender spire with vane. In some instances, however, the façade was a marvelous creation. The steeple likewise was most beautiful. In the construction of the steeple the builders some- times placed upon one form withits Classic adornments a second or third equally ornate form, with the Gothic or rounded roof.
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