 |
In
1684, Captain James Avery bought and removed to Groton
"the old Blinman Meeting House of Bulkely Square in
New London" and added it to his own house. "The Great
room on the first floor was left in its original shape
and meetings were held there as long as Captain Avery
lived, for he was ere a pillar of the church." Occasional
meetings in Groton were allowed to save parishioners
the trouble of crossing the Thames River on Sunday
mornings.
First
Meeting House
|
| |
|
In 1702 the General Court in Hartford gave Groton
permission to build a meeting house, thirty-five
feet square, and hire a minister at 70 pounds
a year, all of which expenses were to be paid
by the town. In
1703 the town built its first dedicated meeting
house in Center Groton near the crossroads,
selling 300 acres of its land to cover building
expenses. (Groton itself became a separate town
shortly thereafter in 1705.)
|
|
The
Kinne or Black Meeting House
|
|
|
The
second meeting house, built in the mid 1760's
near Pleasant Valley, was the Kinne or black
meeting house. Reverend Kinne ministered
to
the church from 1769 to to 1798 and was serving
in 1781 when most male church members were
massacred
by the British at the Battle of Groton Heights
at Fort Griswold. The building has the less
lofty
name of black meeting house because it was
only once—or never—painted and the
elements turned
it black.
|
|
The
Thames Street Meeting House
|
 |
|
In
1833 the congregation replaced the dilapidated
black meeting house with a "neat and commodious
edifice" on Thames Street near the present
railroad bridge. The Reverend Jared Avery was
the first minister in the new church, illustrating
the continuity of the Avery family's connection
to the First Church of Christ. The congregation
remained on Thames Street until the present
building on Monument Street was completed in
1902.
|
|
Present
Meeting House
|
|
