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The
First Meeting House - the original church - was built on the south
side of the green sometime between 1695 and Rev. Cushman's ordination.
It had a gable end on each side, and a so-called dormer roof with
gutters running from the center of the top to each corner. It soon
become too small for the increasing number of parishioners and was
sold to a neighbor, Benjamin Soule, who moved it and converted it
into a barn. By 1702 residents also laid out the town green and gave
30 acres to the church for burying grounds and a training place "as
near the meeting house as may be convenient". A few years later
land was cleared for the burying ground.
In 1716 townspeople built the Second Meeting House.
It fronted towards Carver and stood on the green at a point in front
of the old union hall, which is at the corner of Elm Street. It
was much larger than the first and had three doors, side aisles
(no center aisle) and a gallery, but no steeple, bell, vestibule
nor porch.
In 1772 the Second Meeting House was taken down
and the Third Meeting House built about where the soldiers monument
stands. It fronted west and was 57 feet long, 45 feet wide, with
the pulpit at the east end. It had three front doors and contained
50 windows, one for each wall pew. There were 45 pews on the floor
and 26 in the gallery, which extended around three side and had
two pews raised about an extra two feet, which Negroes sat in. The
choir sat in the gallery, stairs led up to it from the vestibule.
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