History of the
Brookfield Congregational Church
At a Great and General Court of Election held at Boston the 20th of May 1610, the Court granted to several petitioners from Ipswich an area six miles aquare near Quaboag Ponds. John Warner, John Ayers and William Prichard came from Ipswich here in the summer of 1660 and settled on the Quaboag Plantation. In October 1673 the Court granted them the liberty and privilege of a Township, to be called Brookfield. Trouble with the Quaboag Indians forced the abandonment of the settlement for a time, but by 1717 resettlement had taken place, a meeting house had been built on Foster Hill (now in West Brookfield), and the church in Brookfield was officially ‘gathered’. In 1750 the Second or North Precinct was set off from the Town and a church was formed there. This Church is the present North Brookfield Congregational Church.
In 1753, a group of people from the Southern part of Brookfield began to dismantle the meeting house on Foster Hill with an eye to replacing it with a new one on the present Brookfield Mall. This place, they felt, was closer to the geographical center of the Town. The Foster Hill group appealed to the General Court. In 1754, the Court ordered that the town be divided into two parts, West Brookfield and Brookfield. By 1756 a meeting house had been built on the Mall and a church founded in present day Brookfield.
Following a pattern established in Dedham in 1820, in 1827 the church in Brookfield dissolved its contract with its minister, the Rev. Micah Stone. The original church in Brookfield became a Unitarian Church, and the Rev. Mr. Stone and 13 males and 36 females withdrew and formed the Evangelical Society of Brookfield. This was the beginning of the Brookfield Congregational Church. The congregation met, at first, in private homes and then in an old storefront until a church was built a little west of our present location on what is now West Main Street. Mr. Stone reflected on these times and wrote years later: "In this humble retreat, we found a little sanctuary – a resting place in our trials. For there we took sweet counsel together, and strengthened each others’ hands in God."
On December 15, 1855, the Society voted to build a new church. The site was chosen, the architect, Boyden, submitted plans and construction began. The style of the building is Italianate Revival, with much emphasis being placed on making the wood building look as if it were stone. The "new House of Worship" was dedicated on February 4, 1857. The Reverend Jesse Bragg, the Pastor, said in his sermon on that date: "Starting on the principal to pay as we go, with a view to bring the house not badly indebt and the property of the Society, we are happy to be able to say today, that the house as you now see it, at a cost of about $6500.00 – the ground on which it stands, the stone work on which it rests, together with a new bell weighing 1407 pounds, are all substantially clear of debt, there remaining but a trifling sum yet unprovided for."
Over the last 147 years, the church has seen many changes. The alcove at the rear of the church was added in the 1880’s, and electricity was installed in 1913. In 1929, a new organ was installed at a cost of $4665.82. On Christmas morning in 1939, a recast bell rang for the first time in memory of the Rev. Oliver W. Means, who had died the previous June. During the 1990’s several efforts were made to do repairs to the church building which led to a major three-year Capital Fund Campaign "A Gift From the Past, A Promise For the Future" begun in 1997. Over a three year period over $600,000.00 was raised and spent, including matching grants of $138,000.00t of $94,000.00 from the Massachusetts Historical Commission for the restoration of the historical church building, including repainting which changed the exterior white to the 1857 colors and the construction of a completely new steeple which was built following the design of the original. Because of the extent of work that needed to be done to the church building over this period of time, the second phase of the project – the addition of a new wing to provide handicap access to the sanctuary, an on-site church office, meeting and Sunday School rooms, updated and handicap bathrooms, and much needed storage space, had to be postponed to a future date. The desire, however, to complete the "Promise For the Future" has not been forgotten.
Not all of the changes the church has seen have been to the building. In 1896, the church voted that the women be invited to become members of the Society by placing there signatures in the record. In 1956, it was voted to merge the Evangelical Religious Society and the Congregational Christian Church, and in 1962, the Brookfield Congregational Church became part of the United Church of Christ.
As well as a place of worship, the Brookfield Congregational Church has always had, as its mission, outreach and service to the local community and beyond as we continue in the tradition of our forebears as well as forge new paths of ministry
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