Massachusetts

First Parish Church, corner of Powder House Road and Lowell Road, Groton, Middlesex County ,Massachusetts: (42.605687, -71.567034)

Felling Date: Winter 1752/3 and Winter 1753/4

The issue of building a new meeting house in Groton was first raised in 1745 (Butler 1848, 147). In August of 1752 the townspeople voted not to build a new, but they quickly reversed themselves. On September 11, 1752, they “voted to build a new meeting-house with one tier of galleries, and in voting for its place each man to write his name upon his vote to prevent further disputes. . . . [They further voted] that the dimensions of said house be sixty-five feet in length and fifty feet in breadth, and twenty-six feet posts, and to have a belfry at one end of said house to hang a bell on (Butler 1848, 147).” An accompanying illustration shows the meeting house as it appeared in 1838.

On July 26, 1838, the building was struck by lightening and the steeple and belfry were somewhat damaged (Butler 1848, 151). IIn 1839, the meeting house was rotated a quarter turn counter-clockwise and remodelled inside and out in the Greek Revival style as shown in an accompanying illustration.

Miles, D H, Worthington, M J, and Grady, A A, 2002 “Development of Standard Tree-Ring Chronologies for Dating Historic Structures in Eastern Massachusetts Phase II”, Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory, unpublished report 2002/6

Link to the First Parish Church webpage here.

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