Somers Congregational Church: Rebuilding, With Original Plans

SOMERS ——

There are not many physical remnants of the Somers Congregational Church after a fire on New Year's day destroyed the 170-year-old building and damaged a nearby memorial garden and addition.

Since the fire, the church has been holding Sunday services in Johnson Memorial Medical Center and using a trailer in the parking lot for offices. But the congregation is working to rebuild, and when it does, it will have the help of one of the rare items to escape destruction — the original building plans from 1842.

The plans — a folder full of drawings and construction specifications — were housed in the Connecticut State Library in Hartford, which came as a surprise to church historian Ailene Henry.

"We knew the State Library had some of our record books," said Henry. "But we did not know they had documents relating to the building of the 1842 meeting house."

Reference librarian Carol Ganz said that after hearing about the fire in the news, she went to see what documents the library had on Somers Congregational Church.

Although there are stacks of church records in the state library — there was a big push for churches to bring their records in for safekeeping during the 1930s, 40s and 50s (the library would copy the documents, bind them and return the bound copies to the churches) — Ganz said that building plans are rather uncommon.

"I saw a separate box that said, 'Meeting House Building,' and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, that's the building," said Ganz.

Ganz contacted the church after making the discovery. "We were really very happy to be able to be a small part of helping to rebuild," she said. "That's one of the really nice things about having records in more than one place."

The plans are somewhat vague, giving a rough outline of what the 19th-century congregation had in mind for construction. One document titled "Somers Meeting House to be built in the following manner [way]" — hand-written, of course, in pretty black penmanship — includes some exact measurements for the size of the posts, beams and rafters, but also many general directives, like building "a suitable plinth around the entire house."

Henry admitted that the documents were historically interesting, although less practically helpful. "It's not something that we would call a blueprint today," she said. "Although it did have some information on there."

The Rev. Barry Cass said that the plan is for the exterior of the building, whose steeple was a Main Street landmark, to look basically identical to the old church. Code updates and some minor lighting and electrical improvements will alter the interior slightly.

The building was insured at the time of the fire, he said, and the building committee is already meeting with architects to discuss rebuilding. The organ committee has also been traveling around to hear different organs, and the remains of the structure were just released by investigators, clearing the way for demolition and rebuilding. Ideally, it would be nice to have the church finished for Easter 2013, Cass said, but it's premature to set any dates.

Although it could feel slow-going at times, the pastor said that "things are going as well as expected, maybe a little better."

With a congregation dating back to 1727, the church has played a significant role in the community over the years. In addition to hosting a food pantry and providing other social services, the church was home to Somers' town meetings until the current town hall was built in 1950. The fire that destroyed the church is still being investigated by state and local officials.

"People have been very helpful," said historian Henry. "We will rebuild and the church will carry on."

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Somers Congregational Church: Rebuilding, With Original Plans