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caption, page 5:
The Second Congregational Church of Putnam, Main Street, downtown, in 1905.
Church
stands tall
150 years
By Linda Lemmon,
Town Crier Editor
and Roger C. Franklin,
Parishioner
PUTNAM — From hopscotching around downtown to an electrocution; from a hurricane to a fire; from clear glass to stained glass, the Putnam Congregational Church’s current home this year celebrates its 150th year, standing proud.
The current church building was dedicated April 28, 1870. It was built at a cost of $30,000 to $34,000 and consisted of the sanctuary and the chapel. The land was purchased from Smith Wilkinson. Wilkinson, agent for the mill on the west side of the Quinebaug River (which became Putnam Woolen Company, then Hale Mfg. Co and is now the residential and commercial property), was instrumental in founding the Putnam Congregational Society in July of 1848.
But before its current location, the congregation’s first building, the Wilkinson Congregational Church, was at the corner of Main and Pomfret streets. Wilkinson originally built it as a school, most likely where 88 Main Street is today (in between then and now, it housed the Mansfield Store and Sherman’s Meat Market, then Trudeau’s Store and then Foley’s Men’s Shop, among others).
When the congregation outgrew that original building, services were held in the second-floor auditorium of a building in Union Square. The name was changed to the Quinebaug Congregational Church Dec. 16, 1851.
The first building owned by the congregation was in what eventually became the W.T. Grant Store and later the S&H Green Stamp Store. The land for this building, worth $400, was donated by Wilkinson and Mr. Dorrance, while the building itself cost $1,800. The building was dedicated in June 1855 with 50 members.
By 1867, as the congregation grew to near 250 members, the congregation needed a larger building. The old church building was sold at auction to Charles Cheseboro for $6,700, garnering a tidy profit.
When the congregation first occupied the current building it was known as the Second Congregational Church of Putnam because the Heights Church on Rt. 21 was known as the First Congregational Church dating back to 1715. When the Heights Church became inactive in 1928, the Main Street congregation’s name was changed to the Congregational Church, Inc. of Putnam, CT.
Originally the windows in the church were clear glass. Beginning around 1896 stained glass windows replaced the clear glass windows. Most were donated as memorials.
In 1897, the stained glass window over the balcony on the west wall of the sanctuary was given in memory of longtime organist and choir director, J. Astor Broad, by the choir members of that time.
When the church was remodeled in 1922, the Barber Memorial window, depicting Jesus and the children, was moved from the South Wall of the Chapel to the Chancel area above the altar on the east wall of the sanctuary. The Barber Memorial Window was donated in memory of Russell A. Barber who was electrocuted at an early age when the kite he was flying struck a trolley wire.
The current building stood its ground in the hurricane of 1938 and a fire in 1954 and stands as a beautiful downtown landmark today.
Editor’s note: Roger C Franklin has been a member of the church since March 1951. Much of the history of the church was based on the writings of Gertrude C. Warner for the Centennial of the Congregational Church 1848-1948. The Putnam Congregational Church was first recognized by an Ecclesiastical Council of the Consociation of Windham County at the time of its founding on July 9, 1848, as the Wilkinson Congregational Church.
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