Sixteenth in a series on Brandon’s historic buildings.
By JAMES PECK
Brandon Village has five historic churches, but the oldest, by a slim six months, is the Congregational Church, which has overlooked Central Park since 1832. In seven short years, it will celebrate its 200th birthday.
First church buildings & ministers
On September 23, 1785, a group of ten Brandon townspeople (5 men and 5 women) founded the Brandon Congregational Church. They had no pastor for the first seven years, but Jebediah Winslow was the moderator and scribe. Like most New England towns, the Brandon Congregational Church was at first supported by town taxes, up until 1795.
The members first met in private dwellings, often at Loring Larkin’s house located at what is now 60 Park Street. Sometime before 1790, the first church building was built there, a log house. At that time there were only a few rudimentary houses on Park, none of which remain today.
The first pastor, Reverend Enos Bliss, started in 1792, but he was dismissed less than two years later. In 1793, the church adopted the Yale College church covenant used in admitting new members.
In 1797, a one-story framed “meetinghouse” was built where the present-day church now stands. However, it burned down before it was completed. The members rallied and another one was then built on the same footprint that would “afford sufficient accommodation until the year 1831.”
In 1800, Reverend Ebenezer Hebard was ordained as minister, and he would preach there for the next 21 years. He was deeded a tract of land somewhere nearby in the village and also received a meager pay, and periodically the members raised funds for him including for an $18 cow at one point.
Hebard left in 1821 and guest preachers filled the 18-month gap until 1823, when the fiery abolitionist Beriah Green was ordained. Green was given a parsonage house at 31 Franklin Street that the Society had bought. (That house, now Rosebelle’s Inn was not as ornate then as it is today.) Rev. Green left in 1829.
Church Built
In 1831 and 1832, David Warren, a talented builder and church member, designed and built the current church using wood, bricks and marble from Brandon at a cost of $5,000. A bronze plaque still hangs in the sanctuary dedicated to him and his wife Adeline, though it doesn’t say he was the builder. Niram Clark was the chief mason, using bricks from John Conant’s brickyard on lower Carver Street. Both Warren and Clark would build the Baptist Church six months later, completed in 1833.
The new church measured 75 by 52 feet and was 110 feet high at the top of the spire.
In the National Historic Register, the building is described as follows: “A good example of the early Gothic Revival Style. Similar in design to Federal style. churches of the same period, the building derives its ‘gothic’ character only from its details. The broad front elevation is approached by marble stairs, and contains two entrances composed of side-lit doors surmounted by wood panels above which are pointed-arched windows with a simple tracery pattern. The doorways are each set into shallow relieving arches of the same Gothic shape. The arches are connected by a horizontal band of white marble and have keystones of the same material.”
“The wooden tower is set slightly behind the façade gable and is composed of four sections: a square base with a clock on three faces, a smaller boxed belfry with pilasters and a louvers pointed-arched opening on each face, an octagonal lantern with louvered, pointed-arched openings; and a polygonal spire.”
According to the History of Brandon book written in 1961, “When built, there was a gallery around three sides of the room. The meetings were long, cold, and austere. For two or three hours, two or three times every Sabbath, the men, women, and children sat bundled up, their feet sometimes on little stoves. The only other source of heat was a large stove in the middle of the room.”
Another description said: “At noon time, the old ladies would transfer the coals from the large stove to their foot-stoves, hover around this apology for a fire, warm their fingers, eat their doughnuts and cheese and discuss the sermon. The men and boys would adjourn to Landlord Birchard’s bar-room [Birchard’s tavern, the predecessor to the Brandon Inn], where they always found a good fire, warmed themselves and discussed the news.”
The ministers also toughed it out, one wearing an overcoat and striped mittens in the pulpit.
After Reverend Green left, the church was generally hostile to anti-slavery and actually expelled prominent Brandon abolitionist Jedediah Holcombe in 1842, but then embraced the movement after 1845.
In 1858, $3,000 of extensive repairs were made to the church, some by David Warren again, not including a beautiful white marble pulpit, communion table, and pulpit steps which were donated by Deacon Edward D. Selden. The pure white translucent statuary marble came from his quarry in the west side of town.
Chapel Built
In 1860, church members bought the land just south of the church and a 24 by 40 foot brick “session room” that accommodated 100 persons was built costing $805.25. This became the vestry or chapel and was used extensively for meetings.
The chapel was enlarged front and back to be in line with the church in 1899 thanks to the Ladies Aid Society. The architect and builder was the prolific Thomas Rogers, who ironically then lived in the same house as original church builder David Warren at 14 Franklin Street. A kitchen in the rear and cloak room were built and a rolling door was added to divide it into two separate rooms. Gothic windows were added in line with those in the church.
The chapel was renamed Fellowship Hall sometime in the mid-1900s.
In 1885, the church celebrated its centennial with the accompanying group photo taken on the Town Hall steps.
In 1890, the church was again remodeled at an expense of $5,600.
Stained Glass Windows
The church has eight stained-glass windows in the sanctuary today. Four of the windows in the church were dedicated to church members, the first on the northwest corner in 1890 by Reverend Walter Rice in memory of his son Dexter Rice. In 1907, two other memorial windows were placed in the church on both sides of the pulpit and were dedicated, one to Dr. Olin Gideon Dyer and one to Mr. & Mrs. Theron B. Smith (owner of Smith’s Block) and Almeda Warren.
A fourth window was dedicated to Dr. W. H. Wright in 1907 on the center of the north wall.
Church Bell & Clock
When the church was built in 1832, an 800-pound bell was installed in the belfry and a clock in the tower below it. The town had promised the clock to the first steepled church built and the Congregational Church narrowly beat the Baptist Church. The Baptist Church never got a clock though it has a clock tower with nothing on its faces.
In 1874, when the clock had stopped, local farmer Sylvester T. Moulton paid $50 to have “the old Stand-still” fixed and the Brandon Union stated, “It is quite a convenience to the central part of our village to have the old thing running.”
At some point, a rope was rigged to the bell and connected to a fire alarm box on the west side of the church. Keys were kept with the night watchman and in several stores for any citizen to open the box and ring the alarm. It was used for a few fires, but when the huge Simonds Block burned down in 1889, unfortunately it malfunctioned.
In 1892, a new 52-inch bell weighing 3,000 pounds was bought for $800 from the Meneely Bell Company of Troy, New York and installed. The old bell was sold for $120 in scrap. The new bell was inscribed with sixteen names, including Rev. Wm. S. Smart, the four deacons, the six members of the Prudential Committee, the chorister, the organist, and the heads of the Sunday School.
Also in 1892, a new clock was purchased by the town from E. Howard Clock Co. of Boston for $500 and installed by a Howard employee and local jeweler George W. Olmstead in the 11-by-11-foot clock tower. Olmstead also hooked up the fire alarm wire to the alarm box on the south outside wall. The clock faces and figures from the old clock were reused, but the hands were new as was the machinery.
In 1916, a new white marble baptismal fount was donated by the grandchildren of Dr. Anderson G. Dana and his wife Eliza Fuller Dana and dedicated.
Carillon Bells
In 1948, the choir raised funds for the purchase of carillon bells “To bring glory to God and a challenge to life.” The metal tube carillon had 25 miniature bells which were projected to four amplifiers in the belfry. Music could be heard 1 to 5 miles depending on weather & wind conditions. The organist would come in and play daily.
This original carillon broke down completely in 1990 then was replaced by a new digital carillon for $13,000, made by the Maas-Rowe Co. of Encino, CA. It rang from prerecorded tapes on the ¼ hour, ½ hour, and hour in the same pattern as Big Ben. A CD player was tied to the system that would play pre-recorded seasonal songs three times a day at 9:02, 12:02 and 5:02. A small keyboard was connected allowing the organist or other carillonneur to play through the 25 bells either inside or outside, or both.
Organ
A hand-pumped tracker pipe organ made by J. W. Steere was installed in 1907 at a cost of $2,580 to replace the original organ about which little is known, and it was electrified in 1920. It was damaged in the hurricane of 1950, which also damaged the steeple, the same storm that tore down the Baptist Church steeple (restored in 2000). Today, the organ is going strong in its 118th year.
Ministers
Since 1792, there have been 30 ministers for the church, the longest for 25 years. As said before, they were provided with a parsonage starting in 1823. In 1849, the minister stayed with a deacon’s family, then in 1877 the church bought the house at 66 Park, which was used until 1946. For only seven years, the minister lived at 23 Carver. Then in 1953, the church was donated the old Anderson Dana House at 74 Park, which remained the parsonage until 2014. That house was sold in 2016, and the last three ministers have been given a housing allowance.
Reverend Sara Rossigg is the current pastor, in her fourth year, dedicated to continuing the church’s important role in the community.
Steeple repairs
The steeple is subject to the intense New England weather and has needed many periodic repairs over the years, the most recent done by the Robert Morgan Company in 1982, 1998, 2000 and now underway in 2025.
The steeple repair and painting actually includes the four sections described above in the NHR document- the spire at top, the lantern, the belfry and the clock tower. Metal roofing, flashing, damaged and rotted wood will be replaced and everything painted with two coats of Benjamin Moore paint. The total cost is expected to exceed $75,000, depending on unforeseen discoveries and the number of roofing slates that needed to be repaired, an extra that was not part of the original estimate. This project is funded by grants and donations from parishioners and friends of the church. Should anyone wish to donate, you can mail it to Brandon Congregational Church, U.C.C, Box 97, Brandon, VT 05733, care of the steeple fund.
Clock
As related above, the original clock had its issues from its installation in 1832 to its replacement in 1892 by the current one. A year before the new one went in, the Brandon Union stated: “It is sometimes said that a town clock is a type of the town itself. Strangers might say that ours is a little slow. One thing can be said of the clock, it is right at least twice a day anyhow.”
Over the course of its 133 years, the clock and its four faces have had increasing issues as they have aged. One time, someone shot an arrow that stopped the hands on one face and the town’s Mike Snow had to climb out and remove it.
In the past several years, it has stopped a few times and was stuck at 12:35. The hands have now been repainted and once the steeple repairs are completed, which include the clock faces and hands, the town will fix the gearing once they secure a new gear part and hopefully the clock will be working correctly once more.
Iconic building
The Brandon Congregational Church has been an intricate part of the Brandon community and the impressive building a constantly visible icon overlooking the heart of the village. It’s hard to imagine it not there.
