First Church of Christ
In 1694, Roland Cotton was ordained, and served as minister. In addition to his salary, he was granted lands to remain if he stayed, plus the rights to whales stranded on Sandwich beaches. About 100 yards to the east of the meeting house on Main Street, the Cottons built the finest house in town (on what is currently the site of the Daniel Webster Inn). Cotton built a new meeting house in 1703 near Main and River Streets with a separate tower. This tower soon housed the famous Capt. Adolph Bell, cast in 1675, and donated by Adolph's widow in gratitude for finding and interring her husband's body after a shipwreck. The Captain's grave marker is in the Old Town Cemetery.
When in 1800 the clergyman, John Burr, began to preach hard Calvinistic doctrines contrary to his wide liberal background, the people rebelled. Many stayed away from church. In 1813, the Burr supporters split and built a chapel on the site of the present-day First Church of Christ on land sold by James Dillingham, who lived next door in the Dunbar House. The second church on this site, what is today the First Church of Christ, was built in 1847. Its graceful design was in very different than the former plain square or rectangular meeting houses built up until then. Its spire design is often spoken of as reminiscent of the London spires designed by Christopher Wren. It is a backdrop for Elvis Presley's 1960's album, How Great Thou Art. To log this geocache on opencaching.us, the password is Elvis. |