Our History
1800-1888 The Second Meeting House
After much deliberation it was decided to build a new meeting house on the Green rather that repair the old one. On May 1, 1771 the final plans were approved. This Meeting House was to be 58 feet long, 40 feet broad and 24 foot high posts. There was to be a steeple. The roof of both the house and the steeple were to be covered with a cedar and the sides with sawed siding. On August 20, 1771 it was voted "to Raise ye House Gratis - if it can’t be done hire help". The building was completed in early 1800. In the minutes of the General Assembly at Hartford (May 1787) there appear the following words: "the Calamities, and stresses, brought on the Inhabitants by the late War, have prevented them from completing and finishing said Meeting House."
In 1817 the steeple was replaced by a more elaborate one with a cupola. In 1833 the whole interior was taken out and a new one put in which presented an entirely new appearance. The church was rededicated in June 1834. The last services were held on Sunday, July 15, 1888, as the New Church on the Corner was completed.
(It is believed that the Old Meeting House - purchased by Mr. Samuel Denton - was moved from the Green to property he owned on what is now Creamery Lane where it was used as a creamery and later as housing for some of Ridgefield’s immigrant population. In 1942 it was purchased by the Goodwill Community Church. It is now an apartment house.)