7 wonders - First Congregational Church #32

by Ann Talbot

The original meeting house in Holliston was built in 1725. It was "forty feet long and thirty-two feet wide without spire or chimney and with no ornament which would identify it as a house of worship. Its cost other than volunteer labor and donated material was less than one hundred dollars. The owners of the pews against the outside walls were allowed to build a window of any shape, size or location!. It remained until the present building was made ready in 1822." Part of its material went into the new church building, part into the first Town Hall, and the rest was sold at auction. Pieces of it can be found in some of the older homes of Holliston.

A clock was presented to the church by a Mr. Nathaniel Johnson and "with money from the sale of pews a bell was purchased which was cast in Medway by Col. George Holbrook who had learned his trade as an apprentice to Paul Revere." Mr. Holbrook was a musician and produced bells of better musical quality than Revere. Revere’s bells were cast in Millis for four years possibly explaining why Revere was a property owner in Holliston at one time. "As long as the church and town were one, the bell was rung under direction of the Selectmen at noon and at curfew at nine o’clock. Until 1835 the village postmaster distributed mail at Sunday service to those coming from distant points."

Sixty-one horse sheds were added onto the church and later stoves and oil lamps. "Before the installation of the first organ, everyone who owned a musical instrument was urged to bring it to church to lead the music. This brought forth such a chaos of sound that the idea was abandoned." In 1837 a small organ was installed in the rear of the balcony. Whenever the church was redecorated, the organ was put somewhere else.

The pews were privately owned, the "more prominent and wealthy citizens of the town being privileged to sit near the front." The taxes ranged in price from $195 per year to $20 on the main floor and those in the gallery from $2.75 to 87 cents. If the taxes were delinquent,"the amount due with interest and the date of public auction when the pew would be sold" was posted. In the middle 1800's the church "was sawed right open in the middle and twenty feet put in."

In 1903 "Joanna Thompson who lived in the fine old house with pillars on Elm Street known for so many years as Fair Oaks" anonymously donated a really good tower clock which still exists. In the late 1920's around the time of the 200^th anniversary, the church inherited the Dr. Lake property on Hollis Street which was renovated and became the parsonage; at the same time the horse sheds were removed.

In 1953 an auditorium, kitchen, ladies parlor and offices were built partly from a generous gift of Arthur Ashley Williams. Also the vestry under the sanctuary was remodeled into a chapel as a memorial gift by Mr. and Mrs. Karl Jursek. In 1960 the constitution of the United Church of Christ was signed which included Holliston’s Congregational Church. And in 1966 the educational wing was added giving classroom space where the Community Nursery and Day Care facility is now located.

At the town’s 250^th anniversary celebration, the First Congregational Church was named the church around which the town was built. It has graced the town common with pride all these years.

Quoted materials came from History of the First Congregational Church, 1728-1978 compiled by Alice G. Solomon and Ruby T. Stevens. The nomination was made by Matt Putvinski.

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