A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF 267 YEARS OF HISTORY
Early Years
The West Avon Congregational Church was gathered in 1751 as the Second Church and Ecclesiastic Society of Farmington, a daughter church of what is now the First Church of Christ, Congregational, 1652 of Farmington. In the early 1700s, as farming families moved north from the center of Farmington, building homes on the east side of the Farmington River, they continued to travel to the town center for worship, as they were required to do. In 1726 residents of the area known as Northington petitioned the General Assembly for permission to form their own ecclesiastic society but were denied the privilege. By 1746 when there were 160 people living more than three miles from the nearest church, winter privileges were finally granted, allowing the community to hire a minister to preach from December to March; permission to become a separate society was finally granted in May of 1750.
The Society was formally organized on November 20, 1751 with Ebenezer Booge as their first called and settled pastor. For the next several years the congregation met to worship in private homes as they did not have enough funds to build a meetinghouse even though the General Assembly had allowed a tax of one penny per acre to be assessed for four years to raise the money. A “plain, substantial” meetinghouse was finally built on land along “the Nod path”; the first service was held there on August 25, 1754. In 1760 a gallery was added. Parishioners on the west side of the river forded on horseback or used canoes to travel to worship and meetings. After Rev. Booge died in 1767, Rev. Rufus Hawley was called as settled pastor in 1769. He served until 1817.
A Parting
By the early 1800s, growth west of the river had shifted the population center and, as the original meetinghouse was in poor repair and needed to be replaced, sentiment grew for building at a new site. The problem was where to build – in the geographic center of the community, or near the growing business center on the Albany Turnpike? Several times the County Court set a site for the new church, all of which were rejected by the vote of the congregation.
A decision was forced in December 1817, when the meetinghouse burned to the ground under mysterious circumstances. After a final vote was made to build in West Avon, 38 members of the congregation withdrew to form the United Religious Association of Farmington, now the Avon Congregational Church. The majority stayed with the original church, building the West Avon Congregational’s meetinghouse in 1818. It was located “on the road running east and west from Reverend Hawley’s,” a simple American Federal style meetinghouse surrounded by open fields.
Struggles
The reduced congregation, mostly farming families of limited means, saw ups and downs over the next decades, increasing in numbers as the western part of town grew and during religious revivals, decreasing as new churches were formed in Unionville, Collinsville and Avon. They suffered a severe blow during the Civil War when 26 of this small community enlisted to fight; 17 did not return. For many years the church appealed to the Home Missionary Society for funds to meet their obligations. The financial struggles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries came to a head in 1924 when they could no longer keep the church building open nor support a minister.
Faith at Work
After 5 years of once again worshipping in members’ homes, the tiny congregation raised enough money to clean and repair the building, opened their doors, and hired part-time student ministers from the Hartford Seminary.
As the town of Avon grew and changed, so did the church. In 1958 they were able to call their first full-time pastor in 34 years, the Rev. Frederick Bradley. Recognizing that the 150 year old meetinghouse was in serious need of repairs and modernizing (there was no running water and the outhouses were still in use), the congregation, under the leadership of the Rev. Ronald Kurtz, made the decision to move the building to land on the west side of the cemetery. Several families “stepped out into the deep” and put their houses up for collateral to fund this project. On October 26, 1969 the expanded and updated building was reopened for worship.
The year 1972 saw the beginning of the 32-year pastorate of the Rev. Dr. Donald Ketcham, the longest serving pastor since Rufus Hawley. The intervening years had seen many full-time, part-time, interim and student ministers serve the congregation. In 2006, the Rev. Dr. Brian Hardee became the 35th called and settled pastor of the church.
Throughout these years the congregation continued to support and minister to one another; serve the Avon community through sponsorship of scout troops, the Pine Grove Nursery School, the Friendship Circle Adult Day Center, AA and other local groups; and reach out to the wider community by, among other activities, hand-on mission trips, sponsorship of refugee families and contributing to UCC mission efforts.
Today WACC has over 300 members who strive to carry out its mission to reflect our faith in God and Jesus Christ by accepting the guidance of the Holy Spirit, by providing an open and affirming, spiritual, compassionate, nurturing place of worship, learning and fellowship, and by committing ourselves toward making our world a more just and peaceful place.
Early Years
The West Avon Congregational Church was gathered in 1751 as the Second Church and Ecclesiastic Society of Farmington, a daughter church of what is now the First Church of Christ, Congregational, 1652 of Farmington. In the early 1700s, as farming families moved north from the center of Farmington, building homes on the east side of the Farmington River, they continued to travel to the town center for worship, as they were required to do. In 1726 residents of the area known as Northington petitioned the General Assembly for permission to form their own ecclesiastic society but were denied the privilege. By 1746 when there were 160 people living more than three miles from the nearest church, winter privileges were finally granted, allowing the community to hire a minister to preach from December to March; permission to become a separate society was finally granted in May of 1750.
The Society was formally organized on November 20, 1751 with Ebenezer Booge as their first called and settled pastor. For the next several years the congregation met to worship in private homes as they did not have enough funds to build a meetinghouse even though the General Assembly had allowed a tax of one penny per acre to be assessed for four years to raise the money. A “plain, substantial” meetinghouse was finally built on land along “the Nod path”; the first service was held there on August 25, 1754. In 1760 a gallery was added. Parishioners on the west side of the river forded on horseback or used canoes to travel to worship and meetings. After Rev. Booge died in 1767, Rev. Rufus Hawley was called as settled pastor in 1769. He served until 1817.
A Parting
By the early 1800s, growth west of the river had shifted the population center and, as the original meetinghouse was in poor repair and needed to be replaced, sentiment grew for building at a new site. The problem was where to build – in the geographic center of the community, or near the growing business center on the Albany Turnpike? Several times the County Court set a site for the new church, all of which were rejected by the vote of the congregation.
A decision was forced in December 1817, when the meetinghouse burned to the ground under mysterious circumstances. After a final vote was made to build in West Avon, 38 members of the congregation withdrew to form the United Religious Association of Farmington, now the Avon Congregational Church. The majority stayed with the original church, building the West Avon Congregational’s meetinghouse in 1818. It was located “on the road running east and west from Reverend Hawley’s,” a simple American Federal style meetinghouse surrounded by open fields.
Struggles
The reduced congregation, mostly farming families of limited means, saw ups and downs over the next decades, increasing in numbers as the western part of town grew and during religious revivals, decreasing as new churches were formed in Unionville, Collinsville and Avon. They suffered a severe blow during the Civil War when 26 of this small community enlisted to fight; 17 did not return. For many years the church appealed to the Home Missionary Society for funds to meet their obligations. The financial struggles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries came to a head in 1924 when they could no longer keep the church building open nor support a minister.
Faith at Work
After 5 years of once again worshipping in members’ homes, the tiny congregation raised enough money to clean and repair the building, opened their doors, and hired part-time student ministers from the Hartford Seminary.
As the town of Avon grew and changed, so did the church. In 1958 they were able to call their first full-time pastor in 34 years, the Rev. Frederick Bradley. Recognizing that the 150 year old meetinghouse was in serious need of repairs and modernizing (there was no running water and the outhouses were still in use), the congregation, under the leadership of the Rev. Ronald Kurtz, made the decision to move the building to land on the west side of the cemetery. Several families “stepped out into the deep” and put their houses up for collateral to fund this project. On October 26, 1969 the expanded and updated building was reopened for worship.
The year 1972 saw the beginning of the 32-year pastorate of the Rev. Dr. Donald Ketcham, the longest serving pastor since Rufus Hawley. The intervening years had seen many full-time, part-time, interim and student ministers serve the congregation. In 2006, the Rev. Dr. Brian Hardee became the 35th called and settled pastor of the church.
Throughout these years the congregation continued to support and minister to one another; serve the Avon community through sponsorship of scout troops, the Pine Grove Nursery School, the Friendship Circle Adult Day Center, AA and other local groups; and reach out to the wider community by, among other activities, hand-on mission trips, sponsorship of refugee families and contributing to UCC mission efforts.
Today WACC has over 300 members who strive to carry out its mission to reflect our faith in God and Jesus Christ by accepting the guidance of the Holy Spirit, by providing an open and affirming, spiritual, compassionate, nurturing place of worship, learning and fellowship, and by committing ourselves toward making our world a more just and peaceful place.
OUR CHURCH BUILDING – CELEBRATING 200 YEARS
The first meetinghouse of what was the Northington parish of Farmington was built on the east side of the Farmington River, south of the Cider Brook Cemetery. When this meetinghouse was outgrown and in need of repairs, the congregation petitioned the General Assembly to set a new site for their church building. After nearly 10 years of disagreement among the parishioners, the original meetinghouse burned down in 1817, forcing a decision. When a vote was taken to relocate the new meetinghouse on what is now the northeast corner of the intersection of Country Club and Burnham Roads, several families withdrew to form their own society and to build on what is now Route 44.
The simple American Federal style meetinghouse was built in 1818, surrounded by open fields. The 200th anniversary of this meetinghouse will be celebrated in November of this year. The front of the building features a projecting entrance bay with three identical “six-panel doors, surmounted by a semielliptical glazed fanlight….In the gable of the entrance bay is a semielliptical fan with overlapping, radiating blades.”* The steeple “consists of but two stages – a square tower and octagonal belfry”*; it lacks a spire. The belfry holds a bell cast in 1837 by J. Ward Doolittle Foundry in Hartford; that bell is still rung on Sunday mornings to announce the beginning of worship services.
Inside the building most of the flooring is hard-pine boards of varying widths, original to the building. The wall separating the narthex from the “audience room” is curved and, with the original door and woodwork, looks much like it would have 200 years ago. This room originally featured a gallery around three sides but in 1848 the gallery was removed and a “new floor was introduced dividing the original audience room into upper and lower rooms.”* The congregation then worshipped on the upper level with the pulpit at the south end of the room; the lower level was used for church school and for social gatherings.
The minutes of church meetings show a long history of needed repairs and improvements which taxed the financial reserves of this little church. Heat was installed in 1828. The horse stalls behind the church were in place until 1931. Electricity was not added until 1933.
By the 1960s it became apparent that the meetinghouse had serious structural problems. In 1961 a Parish House had been built on land west of the cemetery, some distance from the meetinghouse. Several years of engineering study, architectural renderings, and congregational surveys led to the decision to move the church approximately 100 yards west to locate it between the Parish House and the cemetery. The building was placed on a proper foundation and lengthened by sixteen feet; the second floor was removed, a choir loft and organ were built on the south end of the room. The chancel is located on the north end and is dominated by a large cross created from two of the 1818 hand hewn beams that were removed from the attic. Two of the original box pews, “the only ones of the sort … now remaining in any Connecticut meetinghouse”* were preserved and relocated next to the pulpit and to the lectern. Nineteen windows fill the room with light. The renovated building was dedicated on October 26, 1969; the 50th anniversary of this event will be observed in 2019.
*From Early Connecticut Meetinghouses, Vol II by J. Frederick Kelly, Columbia University Press, 1948
The first meetinghouse of what was the Northington parish of Farmington was built on the east side of the Farmington River, south of the Cider Brook Cemetery. When this meetinghouse was outgrown and in need of repairs, the congregation petitioned the General Assembly to set a new site for their church building. After nearly 10 years of disagreement among the parishioners, the original meetinghouse burned down in 1817, forcing a decision. When a vote was taken to relocate the new meetinghouse on what is now the northeast corner of the intersection of Country Club and Burnham Roads, several families withdrew to form their own society and to build on what is now Route 44.
The simple American Federal style meetinghouse was built in 1818, surrounded by open fields. The 200th anniversary of this meetinghouse will be celebrated in November of this year. The front of the building features a projecting entrance bay with three identical “six-panel doors, surmounted by a semielliptical glazed fanlight….In the gable of the entrance bay is a semielliptical fan with overlapping, radiating blades.”* The steeple “consists of but two stages – a square tower and octagonal belfry”*; it lacks a spire. The belfry holds a bell cast in 1837 by J. Ward Doolittle Foundry in Hartford; that bell is still rung on Sunday mornings to announce the beginning of worship services.
Inside the building most of the flooring is hard-pine boards of varying widths, original to the building. The wall separating the narthex from the “audience room” is curved and, with the original door and woodwork, looks much like it would have 200 years ago. This room originally featured a gallery around three sides but in 1848 the gallery was removed and a “new floor was introduced dividing the original audience room into upper and lower rooms.”* The congregation then worshipped on the upper level with the pulpit at the south end of the room; the lower level was used for church school and for social gatherings.
The minutes of church meetings show a long history of needed repairs and improvements which taxed the financial reserves of this little church. Heat was installed in 1828. The horse stalls behind the church were in place until 1931. Electricity was not added until 1933.
By the 1960s it became apparent that the meetinghouse had serious structural problems. In 1961 a Parish House had been built on land west of the cemetery, some distance from the meetinghouse. Several years of engineering study, architectural renderings, and congregational surveys led to the decision to move the church approximately 100 yards west to locate it between the Parish House and the cemetery. The building was placed on a proper foundation and lengthened by sixteen feet; the second floor was removed, a choir loft and organ were built on the south end of the room. The chancel is located on the north end and is dominated by a large cross created from two of the 1818 hand hewn beams that were removed from the attic. Two of the original box pews, “the only ones of the sort … now remaining in any Connecticut meetinghouse”* were preserved and relocated next to the pulpit and to the lectern. Nineteen windows fill the room with light. The renovated building was dedicated on October 26, 1969; the 50th anniversary of this event will be observed in 2019.
*From Early Connecticut Meetinghouses, Vol II by J. Frederick Kelly, Columbia University Press, 1948
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280 Country Club Road
Avon, Connecticut 06001 (860)673-3996 |
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