After the First Congregational Church in Deerfield became Unitarian, a group of orthodox Congregationalists separated to make their own church. In 1838, they constructed the “White Church.” The differences between the two churches were resolved in 1931 and in 1957, the White Church was purchased to become part of Historic Deerfield. It is now the White Church Community Center.
The First Church of Deerfield‘s current meeting house is the town’s fifth in succession, all of which were built on or around Meeting House Hill. The earliest of these buildings was burned during King Philip’s War. The second and third meeting houses are pictured in a sketch of Deerfield buildings made by Dudley Woodbridge in 1738. The second was built in 1682, the third in 1695. In 1952, Deerfield’s post office was remodeled to resemble the third meeting house, which was in use until 1728. The fourth meeting house, the first to have a steeple, was built in 1729 and taken down in 1824, to make way for the current church, which is known as the “Brick Church.” It was built by contractor Winthrop Clapp and was modeled on the 1819 Second Congregational Church in Greenfield. In 1807, a controversy began when the church ordained a Unitarian minister, Rev. Samuel Willard. He was succeeded by other Unitarians. Orthodox Congregationalists eventually broke away and built their own church in 1838. The Brick Church remains a Unitarian Universalist Church today.
In 1806, the members of the Baptist church in Suffield, Conn who were living in Southwick, Mass decided to form their own church, which was later formally incorporated in 1826. The Baptist Meeting House was built around 1822. It was moved to Storrowton, at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield in 1930. In 1957, the Meeting House was attached to the Atkinson Tavern to double the size of the popular Storrowton Tavern restaurant.
The Religious Society of North Hadley was organized in 1831, having separated from the First Congregational Church of Hadley. The meeting house was built and dedicated in 1834 and the steeple was added in 1854.
King’s Chapel, originally founded to serve British officers, was the first Anglican church in Puritan Boston. The Chapel‘s first building was a wood structure, built in 1686 on land that had been part of the town’s oldest burying ground. The current Chapel, built of Quincy granite, was constructed around the old one in 1749-1754 (the dismantled remains of the old church were then removed through the windows). The architect was Peter Harrison, of Newport, RI, considered to be America’s “first architect,” who modeled the Georgian-style building on those designed by James Gibbs in England, like St. Martin in the Fields in London, except the steeple of King’s Chapel was never built due to a lack of funds. When the British evacuated Boston during the Revolutionary War, there were few Anglican families remaining in town. James Freeman, a lay reader, became minister in 1783 and led Stone Chapel (as King’s Chapel had come to be called) to become America’s first Unitarian church in 1789 (although the congregation continued to follow a liturgy based on the Book of Common Prayer). That same year, George Washington attended an oratorio at the Chapel intended to raise funds for the construction of a portico of wood Ionic columns, painted to resemble stone. When the Chapel’s bell cracked in 1814, it was recast by Paul Revere. Both the Chapel and the adjacent King’s Chapel Burying Ground are on the Boston Freedom Trail.
Boston’s Park Street Church was built in 1809-1810 on the site of the 1738 town granary (the Old Granary Burying Ground is next door). The church‘s architect, Peter Banner, adapted the steeple from a design by Sir Christopher Wren. Solomon Willard carved the wooden capitals of the front columns. Either because of the “fire and brimstone” sermons of its Congregational preachers or the fact that gunpowder was stored in its basement during the War of 1812, the corner of Tremont and Park Streets, where the church is located, came to be known as “Brimstone Corner.” The church has had many firsts: the first Sunday School in America was founded here in 1817; the first missionaries to be sent to Hawaii started from here in 1819; the first prison aid society was founded here in 1824; William Lloyd Garrison made his first public anti-slavery speech here in 1829; and Samuel Francis Smith’s hymn, America (“My Country ‘Tis of Thee“) was sung for the first time on the church‘s steeps by Park Street’s Children’s Choir in 1831. Park Street Church is on Boston’s Freedom Trail.
Concord’s first church congregation was gathered in 1636 in Cambridge, with its first meetinghouse being constructed in Concord soon after (opposite the current church) on Lexington Road. This was replaced by the second meetinghouse, built between 1667 and 1673, and the third, built in 1711. This third church was rotated in 1741 to face the road, but burned down in 1900. It was therefore replaced by the current church, completed in 1901, which reproduced its predecessor as much as possible. During the ministry of Ezra Ripley (1778-1841), the congregation moved away from the traditional Puritan Calvinist doctrines and became Unitarian. Henry David Thoreau signed-off from membership in the church in 1841; his funeral services were later held there. Ralph Waldo Emerson affirmed his membership in 1865. Today, the First Parish in Concord is a Unitarian Universalist church.
