Sometime this past fall, the First Congregational Church of Greenfield, a United Church of Christ affilliate, disbanded and sold its building to the Moldovan Church. This is a significant event for Greenfield and I hope to share some of the history of the church and my own memories with you.
The Town of Greenfield was established in 1753. In order to become a town in those days, a community had to have two things: a church and a minister.
A group of settlers, probably for geographic reasons, broke off from the Deerfield church (currently The First Church of Deerfield in Old Deerfield) and founded Greenfield and its church. The first minister was Rev. Josiah Williams; another early minister was Rev. Edward Billings.
Some of the first to start the church had the last names Nims and Smead — there are still people in this area with those last names today. The original building was situated in Trap Plain, near the corner of Federal and Silver streets. Later, a second church building was at Greenfield swimming pool, at the junction of Silver Street and Conway Street, near North Parish School. It is difficult to envision for those who never saw it. Conway Street divided and made a triangle with Silver Street. Old North Parish Church stood on the small triangle.
The Parish Hall (such a grand old building) was across from it on Silver Street. Nash’s Mills Pond was behind Parish Hall and people used to skate on it during the winter.
My parents, Bertha Rawson and Charles Reum, were married in October of 1945 in North Parish Church. I have an old home movie that depicts them walking down the steps of the church after the ceremony. It was taken by my father’s sister, Ethel Maddern. She also took movies of the reception that followed at my grandparents’ house on Leyden Road.
Their names were Alice Brooks Rawson and Wilson Rawson.
I was born in September of 1946. I was baptized at the church when I was about 2½, with my younger cousin, Donna Rawson. I have pictures of the two of us after our baptism. We are in my grandparents’ backyard. I look very prim and proper and Donna, who was only 1, has understandably no idea what is going on
Also, I have a copy of a newspaper article taken from the Greenfield Recorder from a few years later that shows me and my sister, Patti, and my cousins Donna and Jeanne Rawson and another little girl, Linda Elmer. We are on the steps of North Parish Church, dressed to the hilt before attending the Easter Sunday service.
Rev. Harold Curtis was the minister at the time.
Some of my recollections have been helped along by a sermon that Rev. Arthur Shaw preached on the day of the very last church service at North Parish. This would have been in the late 1950s.
His widow, Ruth gave me a copy. The following is a quote from his sermon:
“It does not seem possible that the day has finally come when we must leave this familiar and dear old building; that in another year or so we will be driving our cars over this spot on our way to the swimming pool. Do you know what went through my mind the first time I saw this old meeting house? I thought it looked like an old shoe. The kind of old shoe you put on when you’re depressed and need to take a long walk to get things straightened out in your mind. The kind of old shoe that you put on when you want to go out in the snow and whoop it up with the children. The kind of old shoe you trust when you climb a ladder to the roof of the house. The kind of shoe you put on when no other shoe will do.”
When I was growing up, my parents only attended church occasionally. But between my parents, our neighbors the Webbs, and my aunt, Betty Rawson, we always went to Sunday School. By this time, my sister and I were joined by our brother, Chuck. I believe Ashley Webb went with us, too.
Sunday school was held in the Parish Hall and enough children attended that we had separate classes for the boys and girls. Before we were dismissed, we were called together for our own worship service. Ruth Tuttle led the services. Some of my Sunday school teachers were Mary Burt, Valda Stowe (sister of Penn Gillette of Penn and Teller), Betty Rawson, Evelyn Snyder and Gladys Bickford. My sister, Patti, and I sang in the children’s choir under Marion Nau and Marion Congdon.
Thenis MacKenzie played the organ.
When I was 12, I recalled that I had a small solo part on Easter Sunday. I was very nervous.
It was before my time, but church suppers were held in the church on that little triangle. There was a dumb waiter that later was moved to the Parish Hall. My great aunt, Eva Brooks Underwood, worked on many of those suppers. I also recall mother and daughter banquets, talent shows and Tom Thumb weddings being held there. I sang in some of the talent shows and my great aunt, Blanche Purple, played the piano for many of those shows. I again quote Shaw about the sugar suppers:
“We used to have sugar suppers up there in the balcony. The kitchen was down where we now hang our coats. The dumb waiter shaft is still there. I wonder how many times someone has stuck his head into the shaft and yelled down: ‘More syrup, please. More snow please.’”
After the construction of ‘91, we held our services at Four Corners School for a time.
On Sept. 27, 1964, we had our first service in the building on Silver Street. It happened to be my 18th birthday and I came home from Framingham State College to attend.
Over the years, this building came to have its own happy memories and occasions.
Scout meetings were held there, more church suppers and choir rehearsals. When I was 16 and 17, I led the junior choir for a short time. Great Aunt Purple played for our rehearsals. She at one time had played the organ or piano to accompany silent movies. She played at the Shea Theater in Turners Falls and one of the theaters in Greenfield. Her husband, Carl, started Purple Electric. There were many happy memories made in this building at 43 Silver St.
However, like many families, our church family had two sad and unfortunate incidents that I recall. I would be remiss not to mention them. The first happened in the 1960s. Our church was ready to hire a student minister. Donald Tuttle, a parishioner, was appointed to go to Andover Newton Theological School to interview someone for that position. He interviewed several candidates and decided the best one for us was a young married man with children. The man was black and poor. Tuttle had to go back and tell him it would not be pleasant for them to live in the area. I heard with my own ears a woman say she would not let him into her home.
The second time of dissension happened n the early 1990s.
In December of 1993, President Bill Clinton announced the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for people serving in the military. In January of 1994, our minister, Rev. Shirley Bromley, mentioned it in a sermon. At that time, about once a month, she held “talkbacks” in the church parlor for whoever wanted to attend. About 14 of us met with her and she told us about a policy in the United Church of Christ called Open and Affirming.
At that time, it called for the inclusion of gay and lesbian people into full church membership and participation in any way they wished. The term was later expanded to include others: bisexuals, transgendered, etc. Most of us attending the “talkback” wanted to explore the possibility of our church possibly becoming Open and Affirming. We asked Christine Trenholm, a member and local high school teacher to guide us.
To that end, we met once a week for about a year and a half. We had speakers sometimes and some of the people who were against our church becoming Open and Affirming attended these meetings. This all culminated in a Saturday night meeting in our sanctuary. Most church members attended, plus ministers and members of other churches as observers.
When the votes were collected and counted, the Open and Affirming motion passed by a margin of nine votes.
Many of us who were pro Open and Affirming eventually left the church. I know this is hard to understand. My husband and I decided to leave because we had a gay son (who since died of cancer). He often went to church when he visited us and our belief was that the margin of the vote was too small and Paul would not feel comfortable there. This was a very difficult decision. I do want to say that times change and people grow in their faith and beliefs; both of these blots on the church history would be handled very differently today.
Jim and I attended the First Church of Deerfield for a number of years and were very active in that church.
Later, Judith Kinley, who had been head of the nursing department at Greenfield Community College and a colleague of mine, became minister of the First Congregational Church. We returned and again became members of the church. Again, Jim and I were very active in the church and sang in the choir and held various offices.
Our choir director was Shirley Graves and then Lillian Pearson. Some of those who sang in the choir with us were Sally Sullivan, Connie Mackie, Janet Keyes, Val Stowe, Nancy Purple, Deb Allis, Shirley Smead, Ann Keene, Donald Scott, Paul Allis, and Clayton “Ducky” Cromack. After Judith retired and Lillian left as choir director, we eventually decided to go to the United Church of Bernardston. We had several good friends from the Deerfield church who also started going to church in Bernardston.
These days, David Neal is our minister and we look forward to the day when COVID-19 is past and we can worship there again.
Thank you for letting me share my thoughts and reminiscences of the First Congregational Church of Greenfield. I think it is meaningful for everyone who lives or has ever lived in this town/city to know how the town and church started. I hope it inspires other former members to do the same.