USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > Hartford's First Church > Part 6
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The Meeting House has passed through many changes in the course of the years of its use. Provision for the com- fort of the congregation was made by the Society soon after the house was built as is indicated by the following vote in December, 1815: "Voted that the Committee of the Society procure two suitable stoves for warming the Meet- ing House, and cause the same to be set up in such a man- ner as shall best comport with the ornament and safety of the house and the accommodation of the Assembly." In January, 1818, it was voted "that the Committee hereto- fore appointed to take into consideration the subject of lighting the Meeting House, be authorized to procure such number of lamps of the kind last mentioned in their report of this date as shall be necessary for lighting the Meeting House and to suspend the same in such manner as best to effect the object." In some respects the interior has been changed. Originally the building was without any break in its western wall for the location of the pulpit, and the pulpit stood upon columns at the west end of the middle aisle. It must have been a very lofty perch for the preacher for in 1816 at the close of Dr. Strong's ministry it was somewhat lowered and again in 1835. At this time the gal- leries were also lowered and the square pews which had been placed in them gave way to pews such as those now used, arranged in descending series.
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The Meeting Houses
When it was built, the Meeting House had square pews beneath the galleries along the north and south walls. The central portion of the floor was occupied by pews of about the same size and shape as our present pews. In the earlier usage such pews were called slips to distinguish them from the square pews. In 1852 further changes were made in the interior. The square pews under the galleries were re- placed by the pews we now use. The ceiling, which had been flat, was changed into the present curved form which adds so much to the dignity of the interior. The pulpit re- cess was built upon land granted by the town from the Bury- ing Ground, and the present pulpit was erected in it. At this time lighting fixtures of a somewhat elaborate design were introduced to permit the use of gas for illumination during the evening services.
The changes that were made in the Meeting House in 1852 added much to its dignity and serviceability. It is greatly to be regretted, however, that the pulpit with its sounding board was not preserved. It would today be a priceless possession if it could have been kept, perhaps be- side the present pulpit, and used only on occasions, or better still, adapted to the location of the "pulpit recess."
Structurally the Meeting House, as it stands at the three hundredth anniversary of the Church and one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the building, is as the repairs of 1852 left it. Almost the only exception to this is the appearance of doors on either side of the pulpit recess, which were placed to provide emergency exits at the west end. From time to time the interior has been refinished to keep it in good condition. The most notable of these under- takings were those in 1883, 1900, and 1917. Again in 1932, an entire renovation is being carried on in prepara- tion for the three hundredth anniversary.
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The exterior remains as it was when the Meeting House was built in 1807. The only noticeable change during the long period has been that it was painted, not at the time it was built, but within twenty or thirty years from that date. It had become the practice to paint brick buildings, and this plan was followed by the Society in its care of the Meeting House. In 1917 the paint was entirely removed from the brick and only the wooden surfaces of the exterior were painted. The brick walls were covered with a protecting material which answers the purpose for which the paint was intended, but which leaves the brick in its original appearance.
At the time of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary the window back of the pulpit, which had been placed there in 1852, when the pulpit recess was built and which was of plain glass and required shades to protect the eyes of the congregation from excessive light, was replaced with a window of rather elaborate design, bearing the names of the Ministers of the Church for the two hundred and fifty years, and given in their memory. It was found from experi- ence that this window also permitted so much light to pass through it that the congregation could not with reasonable ease give their attention to the preacher. It became neces- sary therefore, to cover it with a plain hanging. In the years immediately following upon the placing of this memorial window to the Ministers a series of windows representing scriptural and symbolic figures and including a memorial to the first Minister was placed in the lower tier windows around the Meeting House. The list of these memorials will be found in the appendix. A few memorial tablets have been placed upon the walls, and the Communion Table, the Baptismal Font, the deacons' chairs, and the plates for
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The Meeting Houses
receiving the offerings of the congregation have been given as memorials to the Church.
The two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Church was observed on October 10 and 11, 1883. Though the Church was actually gathered in Newtown in 1632, it was on October 11, 1633, that the first Minister and the first Teacher were recognized by the congregation and therefore the observance was fixed for the anniversary of that date. On this historic occasion the gratitude of the congregation was expressed for the Meeting Houses used by the Church and especially for the Fourth Meeting House, then seventy- five years old. In addition to the notable historical address delivered by the Minister, Dr. Walker, out of which grew his history of the Church, a paper was presented by Mr. Rowland Swift giving an account of the Meeting Houses and their appointments. This paper is preserved with the historical address of Dr. Walker in the volume which in- cludes the proceedings of the anniversary.
In 1907 occurred the one hundredth anniversary of the dedication of the fourth Meeting House of the Church. It was noted that its centennial came in the year of the two hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary of the actual found- ing of the Church in Newtown in 1632. Accordingly the two anniversaries were observed together, the exact date being the anniversary of the dedication of the Meeting House on December 3. In token of gratitude for the preser- vation of the Meeting House through one hundred years, the memorial organ, originally given in 1883, was rebuilt by the gift of the congregation.
The observance was marked by an address upon the Meeting House by Mr. Francis Parsons, and other ad- dresses by Professor Williston Walker, and the Rev. Arte-
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mus J. Haynes, D.D. of United Church, New Haven, and by congratulatory addresses by Governor Rollin S. Wood- ruff for the State, Mayor William F. Henney for the city, the Rev. Edwin Pond Parker, D.D., for the churches of the city and the state, and by the Rt. Rev. Chauncey B. Brewster, Bishop of Connecticut of the Protestant Episco- pal Church, for the interdenominational fellowship of the churches.
We are now coming up to the one hundred and twenty- fifth anniversary of our Meeting House, as we celebrate the tercentenary of the founding of the Church. It has been preserved to us through a longer period than any of the preceding houses of worship, and it is the earnest prayer of all those who love it that it may stand for many years to come.
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CHAPTER V The Use of the Meeting Houses
IN the early New England communities, the Meeting House was a term generally used for the building designed for public worship but devoted necessarily to the use of any public gathering too large to be accommodated in the homes of the families. Whether the meetings were religious or political, it was the Meeting House that was used for the purpose. Even observances which were social in char- acter had no other place in which to be held and on the infrequent occasions when such assemblies were gathered it was in the Meeting House that they convened.
In the early years of the Hartford community the same custom was followed. The Meeting House, on the square assigned to it when the settlement was laid out, served all the purposes included in its name. It was the arsenal of the town and such arms and ammunitions as were held for the general purposes of the settlers were stored there. It was the seat of the civil government and the citizens met there to determine their common policies. When the repre- sentatives of the neighboring towns came to form the General Court they met with the representatives of Hart- ford in the Meeting House. In 1639 the meeting which adopted the Fundamental Orders was held there.
Hartford's First Church
As time passed and some travel developed between the towns and between the Colony and other settlements in Connecticut and the Massachusetts Bay Colony, taverns for the accommodation of travelers were established and meetings of informal conference on public affairs were held in these taverns.
The Meeting House, however, continued to be used for the more general civic meetings. A Court House was built in 1719 to serve for the judicial purposes of the growing town, but still the Meeting House served for the use of the General Court when it convened in Hartford. In this way both the first and second Meeting Houses of the Church were used in the old location on Meeting House Square, and the third House likewise when it was built on the Burying Ground in 1739. The most notable event in the third Meeting House was the meeting and action of the convention which on the part of Connecticut ratified the Constitution in 1788. The Connecticut Courant for January 7 of that year, records the following notice of this convention which met for six days and adopted the Constitution on January 9 by a large majority :
"January 3, 1788. The Hon. Convention of this State met this day at the State House in the City of Hartford, and appointed His Excellency, Matthew Griswold, Esq., late governor of the State, President, and Jedidiah Strong, Esq., Secretary. After examining the certificates of the members, they adjourned to the North Meeting House which had been previously fitted up with stoves for the purpose of accommodating the convention."
But the primary purpose of the Meeting House from the beginning was its use as a place of worship. It may be interesting to observe something as to the character of this use. It appears that there were ordinarily two services on Sunday. This was the usage for the greater part of the
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The third Meeting House
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The second Meeting House
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The Use of the Meeting Houses
history of the Church. The diary of Daniel Wadsworth which records his service with some minuteness indicates two services every Sunday. Nearly a hundred years after his time we find in 1865 a vote upon the minutes of the Society as follows :
"Voted that in the opinion of this society afternoon service in the Center Church should commence no earlier than three o'clock in winter and four o'clock in the summer."
After the conclusion of the ministry of Dr. Hawes the second service was omitted for a time. In 1891 it was estab- lished again in the form of a Vesper Service which met with wide acceptance in the community both because of its unusual character and because of the ability with which the music was rendered and the effectiveness of the pulpit ministry of Dr. Charles M. Lamson, in the years of his pastorate from 1894-1899. The Vesper Service continued until 1928. In it was used, except in the first experimental years, a semi-liturgical order of service developed by Dr. Lamson in collaboration with Mr. Nathan H. Allen, director of music.
In marked contrast to the semi-liturgical character of the Vesper Service was the form of service used in the earlier Meeting Houses and during the first two centuries of the life of the Church. These services began with a free prayer on the part of the Minister which occupied a period of fifteen minutes. After the prayer the Minister read and expounded at some length passages of Scripture of his choice. Following upon the Scripture reading came an act of praise on the part of the congregation. For this the Bay Psalm Book was generally used. This was published in 1640 and was notable as the first book printed in America. The words only of the metrical version of the Psalms were printed and for their use in worship were set to a few tunes which were preserved among the people by tradition.
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Old Hundredth is probably the best known of these early tunes remaining to us. It is probable that the singing of the Psalms under these conditions had no other impressiveness than that of a tremendous sincerity on the part of the par- ticipants. The sermon was preeminent and to the minds of the people the significant element in this form of Puritan worship. In it the minister set forth his understanding of the Scriptures and the body of the Christian teaching and applied the truth to the spiritual experience and the life of the people. It probably continued not less than an hour in its delivery and was given to the congregation directly by the minister without the use of a manuscript either in the form of a complete written transcript or even an outline or notes. Tradition reports sermons of greater length than one hour though these were probably occasions when the minister felt called upon to extend his usual effort. An hour- glass upon the pulpit served to inform both the preacher and his congregation of the passage of time during the delivery of the sermon. The sermon was followed some- times by the singing of another psalm or hymn and the congregation was dismissed with a benediction by the min- ister. This primitive order of worship has continued with comparatively slight modifications until our own time. We scarcely realize how recent has been the introduction of varied prayers, of music by the choir, of responsive read- ing of the psalter or other scripture and the receiving of an offering. In the Hartford Evening Post for April 15, 1890, there appears an interesting editorial on the new form of service at "the Old Center." This service included respon- sive readings for the first time, and was looked upon as "a hint of Popery" by many of the more conservative of the congregation. Marked changes are now taking place in the order of worship including unison prayers and prayers arranged for responsive use by the minister and the people.
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Dr. Timothy Woodbridge, Minister from 1685-1732, had marked influence during his long pastorate upon the development of the worship in the Church and especially upon the practice of the Church as to its singing. In 1727, near the close of his ministry, he preached a "Singing Lec- ture" in which he defended singing by note and argued for the return to the use of printed music which had been aban- doned by most of the Puritan churches from the time of their establishment in New England. The Church, how- ever, was committed to its practice using only the guidance of tradition in its tunes and it was not until after his death that the Church took action, deciding to try the new method of singing by notes for three months. In December 1733 we find the Society taking action as follows :
"Voted that Singing by Rule be admitted and prac- ticed in the Congregation of this society in their publick Worshipping of God; and this Society by their Vote mani- fest their desire that Mr. Joseph Gilbert Jun' would take upon him the Care of Setting the psalm in the Congregation according to the above Vote."
In the pastorate of Edward Dorr in January 1756 the records show an action by the Society's Committee with reference to the use of Dr. Watt's Psalms.
"Voted that Society's Committee inform Mr. Dorr that the Society are desirous that Dr. Watt's Psalms may be sung in the Congregation at the time of Divine Worship at least half the time."
During these years the service of leadership in song in the congregation was a voluntary service for which some suitable person was appointed by the congregation. In 1783 the following vote is recorded :
"Voted that the sum of three farthings on the pound be laid on the Polls and Rateable Estate of the inhabitants
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Hartford's First Church
of this Society for the purpose of hiring a suitable person for teaching Psalmody in the Society."
In 1789 the Society made an appropriation "for the purpose of encouraging and assisting psalmody." Such action was taken each year by the Society, the sum gradu- ally increasing from five pounds to twelve hundred dollars in 1875. In the years succeeding, changes have been made in the conduct of the music of the Church. For a time a male choir was used, for the most part a quartet, occa- sionally varied by the addition of one or two singers and recently by the use of a chorus.
In 1817 a small selection of hymns for use in the Church was published by a Committee of the Society to be used in connection with the hymn book of Dr. Dwight. In 1845 it was determined to use an edition of psalms and hymns that had the approval of the General Association of Connecticut. And in that year it was voted "to take measures for the instruction of the young members of the society in singing."
Instruments of music must have been used occasionally in the earlier Meeting Houses and in the first years of the use of the fourth Meeting House. The first use of an organ was in 1822 when a number of members of the Society presented such an instrument. In the following year an appropriation of two hundred dollars was made for the employment of an organist. In 1835 the Society purchased its second organ-a notable instrument which was made in Boston and brought to Hartford around Cape Cod in the schooner "Lydia." "The American Magazine of Useful Knowledge" for 1835 contains a description of this organ with a picture of it, and the editor, Nathaniel Hawthorne, observes that it had "a greater volume of tone and brilliancy than we have ever witnessed in any organ of its size."
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The Use of the Meeting Houses
At the time of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Church in 1883 the organ of 1835 was replaced by an instrument given by Mrs. Leonard Church in memory of her husband. This served until 1907 when it was entirely rebuilt and in this form continues to serve the congregation. The case of the organ of 1835 has been preserved and is one of the ornaments of the interior of the Meeting House.
Numerous civic occasions have made use of the Meet- ing Houses as the place of assembly. Of these the greater number were the old time observances of "Election Day." When the General Court met in Hartford it was the cus- tom for its members to march in a procession from the Court House, and later from the State House, to the Meet- ing House of the First Church. Assembled in the Meeting House the representatives listened to a sermon from the minister of the Church or from some other minister of the Colony or State invited to serve. On such occasions the preacher chose themes dealing with the recognition of provi- dential guidance in the history of the people or having to do with the moral values and responsibilities of govern- ment. Such occasions were notable in the history of the community and of the Church and such assemblies must have been graced with no little civic dignity and accompanied by justifiable civic pride. They were continued until about one hundred years ago.
Many patriotic societies have used the Meeting House for anniversary occasions, some for special meetings which took the nature of conventions. Quite regularly patriotic services for such organizations have been held in the Meet- ing House, sometimes by request of the organization, some- times by invitation of the Church delivered through its Minister. A notable civic commemoration service was held in the third Meeting House at the beginning of the nine- teenth century and a similar one in the present Meeting
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House at the beginning of the twentieth century. This latter service convened at 11:30 p. m. December 31, 1900 and after prayers and responses and scripture reading awaited in silence the ushering in of the century at midnight by the strokes of the historic bell of the Church.
At the time of the dedication of the Bulkeley Bridge in October 1908 a civic service of commemoration and thanks- giving was held attended by representatives of the city government and their guests.
From the time of the installation of the first organ the Meeting House was used occasionally for many years as a place for the rendition of music and many concerts of the character that was known as "sacred music" found an ap- preciative public there. In 1822 the Society's committee authorized the Jubal Society to give a concert of music in the Meeting House, "with open doors and liberty of a con- tribution but without any sale of tickets." This policy of permitting musical events for which no admission was charged has been the general policy of the Church with regard to the use of its Meeting House for such occasions. In 1915 Mr. Nathan H. Allen, organist of the Church from 1883 to 1906 presented to the library of the Church some old and rare programs of "sacred concerts" held in the Meeting House in 1835 and 1836. Mr. Allen wrote to John D. Parker, clerk of the Church, "Probably few members of the Church today know anything of the gen- erous part the Center Church took in the early evolution of musical culture and taste in this city. So far as sacred music went-in concert form-the Center Church was the chief concert hall in the town, and was generously given for every large effort without money and without price; and the pastor, Dr. Hawes, stood willing and ready to open all these functions with fervid prayer, as was the custom in those days."
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The Use of the Meeting Houses
Of especial interest in the use of the Meeting House for religious services there should be mentioned the preaching of Whitefield at the time of the Great Awakening, of Lyman Beecher, Asa Nettleton and Charles Finney during the first half of the nineteenth century and of Dwight L. Moody in later years.
An unusual use of the Meeting House was made in 1813 when Dr. Strong acted for the Church in granting its use to a Catholic priest, who was traveling through the country and was detained in Hartford because of the law prohibiting travel on Sunday. There was no Catholic Church in Hartford at that time and Dr. Strong invited the traveler to conduct a service for his companions and any Catholic people of the city in the Meeting House.
On Christmas in 1862 a union meeting of Congrega- tional, Methodist and Baptist churches in observance of the day was held in the Meeting House with Dr. Hawes pre- siding. It was probably the first time the Church held a service in the definite observance of Christmas day. It is to be regretted that the precedent has not been followed. Union services upon Thanksgiving day and upon Good Friday have long been held in union with other downtown churches.
The Church has always given cordial welcome to mis- sionaries in its Meeting House since the day in 1819 when Hiram Bingham, missionary of the American Board under appointment to the Sandwich Islands, preached in its pulpit. Many other missionaries have spoken at the meetings of the Church and of various missionary organizations. The annual meeting of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was held in the Meeting House in 1901 and again in 1918. The meeting of the Congrega- tional Home Missionary Society was held there in 1898.
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It is interesting to remember, on the three hundredth anniversary of the Church in 1932, while the nation is observing the bicentennial of the birth of Washington, that upon the occasion of the first president's death in 1799 a service was held in the Meeting House to commemorate his life and services. The Courant of December 30, thus describes this event :
"In consequence of the afflicting intelligence of the death of General Washington, divine services were performed at the North Meeting House in this town on Friday last. The town never exhibited a more solemn and interesting ap- pearance. Notice having been given to the inhabitants of this and the neighboring towns, the concourse of people was greater than almost ever known on any former occa- sion. The stores and shops were shut through the day, the bells were muffled and tolled at intervals from nine in the morning until the service commenced. The Meeting House was greatly crowded, and still a large proportion of the people could not get in at the doors. The services were solemn, appropriate and impressive. A very eloquent and pathetic sermon was delivered by the Reverend Nathan Strong to a most attentive, devout and mourning audi- ence from Ex. 11:3, "And the man Moses was very great."
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