Dome

Overall view from the west side, looking east; Hidden beneath the current exterior is an 1869 neo-Romanesque (Romanesque Revival) brick building. The Congregation was originally formed in 1765. In 1869 the new building was completed in a new location (from older meetinghouses which are no longer extant) and became known as the New Congregational Church. In 1914 the exterior was remodeled in white clapboard based on the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, Connecticut (which had been rebuilt with much fanfare in 1909 to the 1816 plans of Samuel Belcher, after the original had burned down). Belcher was from Hartford CT, and also built the John Sill House and William Noyes House in Old Lyme in Federalist style. There are five other Connecticut churches that follow the same design, dating from the 1820-1830s. Source: First Congregational Church, Williamstown [website]; http://firstchurchwilliamstown.org/ (accessed 6/20/2012)