Old First Church

Interior of Old First Church, Springfield, Mass (2)

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The interior of Old First Church from the balcony, around 1940. Photo from author’s collection; gift of Barbara Shaffer.

 

The church in 2015:

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The interior of Old First Church was shown in an earlier post, with a photo that was taken around 1915. At the time, the interior design was from an 1881 remodel, but in 1924 many of the Victorian changes were undone and it was restored to an early 19th century appearance. The c.1940 photo here reflects these changes, and it remains mostly the same today. There is a different organ, which was installed in 1958, the steps up to the pulpit have moved, and most of the pews to the left and right of the pulpit are gone, but there have been no major alterations since 1924.

The church was built in 1819, and after nearly 200 years it is the oldest church building still standing in the city. However, the First Church congregation itself no longer exists. With declining membership and high maintenance costs, they disbanded in 2007, and the city purchased the historic building. They regularly rent it out it out for special events, and since 2009 it has also been used by WellSpring Church for their Sunday services.

Interior of Old First Church, Springfield, Mass

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The interior of Old First Church in Springfield, around 1915. Photo from The First Church, Springfield, 1637-1915; Milestones Through Twenty-Seven Decades (1915).

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The church in 2015:

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Old First Church was featured in the first post on this blog, and it is probably my favorite historic building in Springfield.  It is also the oldest church building in the city, having been completed in 1819, and it is one of the oldest buildings of any type in Springfield. Although the exterior of the church hasn’t changed much in the past 195 years, the interior has gone through some changes, as the two photographs show.

As built, the church had different pews, which had tall backs and were not particularly comfortable. These were replaced with the current pews in 1864.  Also at this time, the high pulpit was replaced with a platform, and the arch was constructed over it. The first organ was installed in 1849, but it was on the balcony in the back of the sanctuary; it wasn’t until 1881 that the organ was moved to the front, and the current organ has been there since 1958.  Since the 1915 photo was taken, most of the major changes to the interior came in 1924, when it was renovated to early 19th century designs.  This included modifying the arch over the organ and adding the two columns, changing the curve of the ceiling, and adding decorative scrollwork to the ceiling.

The church was dedicated in a special ceremony on August 19, 1819, with Reverend Samuel Osgood preaching on the occasion.  Osgood had been the pastor of the church since 1809, and would continue in that capacity until 1854.  During the ceremony, Colonel Solomon Warriner led the performance of four songs.  Warriner was the director of music for the First Church from 1801 to 1838, and served as a colonel in the Massachusetts Militia during the War of 1812.

In the years that followed, the sanctuary at Old First Church has hosted a number of notable guests, including Secretary of State and Senator Daniel Webster, abolitionist John Brown, singer Jenny Lind, and evangelist D.L. Moody.  I don’t know if any living presidents have ever visited the church, but in 1848, the body of John Quincy Adams lay in state in the center aisle when his body was being brought back from Washington, D.C. to Quincy.  Far more recently, several other notable politicians have spoken at Old First Church, including former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and former Mayor of Boston and Ambassador Ray Flynn.

The church congregation disbanded in 2007, after 370 years of existence, as a result of declining membership and the increasing costs of upkeep.  The City of Springfield purchased the building and uses it for various functions.  It is, however, still used as a church – WellSpring Church leases the building from the city for Sunday services and church offices.

President Taft at Springfield, Mass (1)

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President William Howard Taft, giving a speech on Court Square in Springfield, on April 25, 1912. Photo from Progressive Springfield, Massachusetts (1913).

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The scene in 2014:

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The 1912 photo was taken on the same day as the photo in this post, which shows a close-up of President Taft speaking on the platform.  Here, the platform can be seen behind Old First Church on the left-hand side, and it shows the massive crowd that had assembled to see him during his 1912 presidential campaign, which would end with him earning the Republican nomination but losing to Woodrow Wilson in the November election.  Today, three of the buildings from the first photo are still there: Old First Church, the Court Square Hotel, and the old Hampden County Courthouse.  There are also some remnants of this part of Court Square, which once stretched from the back of Old First Church to the Connecticut River (which can be seen in this post).  Today, the Hampden County Hall of Justice covers part of the land, and East Columbus Avenue passes diagonally across it.

President Taft in Springfield, Mass

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President William Howard Taft speaking behind Old First Church on April 25, 1912. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Bain Collection.

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The scene in 2014:

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The 1912 presidential election was an unusual one, brought on by a rift in the Republican party between President William Howard Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt.  Both sought the Republican nomination, and on April 25, Taft was making his way through Massachusetts before the primary five days later.  April 1912 was an eventful time – when the photo of Taft was taken, Fenway Park had just opened five days earlier, and five days before that, the Titanic sank. However, at the time, the most pressing political issue in the country was the apparent fracturing of the Republican Party.

The Massachusetts voters ended up choosing Roosevelt for the Republican nomination, but at the national convention a few months later, the party bosses chose Taft. It would end up being a Pyrrhic victory for them, though, because Roosevelt ran as a third party candidate, which split the Republican vote in he November election and gave Democrat Woodrow Wilson an easy victory.  In the end, Taft won just two states and eight electoral votes, a dismal showing for an incumbent president.

For the speech, Taft stood behind Old First Church, facing what was at the time the newly-cleared extension of Court Square, which went from the back of the church to the railroad tracks next to the Connecticut River.  The brick section in the back of Old First Church is still there today, although it was substantially renovated in 1947.  The windows behind Taft have since been bricked up, but their outlines, formed by lighter-colored bricks, are still visible.

Court Square, Springfield (6)

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Springfield’s Court Square, sometime in the 1880s or earlier. Photo from Springfield Present and Prospective (1905).

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The scene in the 1890s. Photo from Our County and Its People: A History of Hampden County, Massachusetts (1902).

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The scene in 2014:119_2014

The three photos show the progression of the appearance of Court Square in the past 125+ years. In the first photo, the buildings along Elm Street are all 1830’s-era three story commercial buildings, most of which were replaced by the Court Square Theater in 1892, which can be seen in the second photo, a rare view of the building before the 1900 expansion on the right side. That is essentially the only change between the second photo and today’s scene – not much has changed with the four major buildings in this angle. One notable survivor on the far left is the Byers Block, which was built in 1835 and is the last remaining part of the Elm Street commercial blocks from the first photo. Wedged in between two much larger late 19th century building, it is the oldest surviving commercial building in the city, although not the oldest building in the photo – Old First Church on the far right dates to 1819.

Court Square, Springfield (5)

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Court Square in Springfield, sometime in the 1860s or early 1870s. Photo courtesy of New York Public Library.

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The same scene in 2013:

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Court Square has been the center of activity in Springfield since its founding.  The first meeting house was built just to the left in the foreground, and all of the subsequent churches have been built on Court Square.  The square was established as a park in 1821, two years after Old First Church was built.

The building on the right-hand side of the photo is the old Hampden County Courthouse, which was built in 1821 and used as a courthouse until the 1874 courthouse was built just to the left of Old First Church. The 1874 structure is still in use as the juvenile and housing court, but the preesent-day courthouse is visible beyond and to the right of the church in the 2013 photo.  The old 1821 courthouse was later used as an Odd Fellows hall, and was demolished at some point in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s. The small building in between was the church’s chapel, which was replaced by the present-day brick structure in 1874.