The History of Pilgrim Congregational Church

Pilgrim Congregational Church began to take shape in 1684 when a group of settlers who had founded the town of Dunstable, Massachusetts built a meeting house. On December 16th of 1685 these same settlers organized a church consisting of six members—not including the women! On that day, the church called an Ecclesiastical Council and ordained its first pastor, Rev. Thomas Weld, who served the church until his death in 1702.

After Rev. Weld's death, the congregation encountered tough times; they were unable to pay or find a pastor. When the town gathered in 1703, some complained on the record that “inhabitants can never hear a sermon without traveling more than twelve miles from their principal post!” Responding to the town's plight, the General Court of Massachusetts provided a grant of twenty pounds to support the town ministry.

With the drawing of a line between Dunstable and Nashua in 1741, a second meetinghouse was built to serve the new village in what is now South Nashua. By 1744, a religious debate called the “New Light Controversy” was brewing, and a third meetinghouse was built to accommodate opposing “New Lighters” and “Old Orthodoxers”.

In 1753, the town voted to replace Nashua's first meetinghouse even as the controversy continued. This structure served as a place of worship until 1812 when it was torn down and a new meetinghouse called the Old South Meeting House was erected, patterned after its namesake in Boston.

In 1825 the Nashua Manufacturing Company—because of the business boom in the village—built a church for its employees and named it the Olive Street Church. Thirteen years after its founding, this church called The Rev. Handel Knot who, in 1834, amidst another time of theological ferment, declared he would no longer recognize nor practice infant baptism. He resigned the pastorate and formed The First Congregational Church of Nashua Village. This name was later abandoned in favor of taking back the former name, the Olive Street Church. Those who had originally stayed, but had not followed Rev. Knot's beliefs, became the forebears of today's First Church.

A period of growth followed and in 1846, The Pearl Street Church was built. These two bodies existed side-by-side until 1879 when they were reunited at the Olive Street church site. Both church buildings were soon torn down, and a new Pilgrim Congregational Church was constructed in 1882 on Temple Street.

When the church sanctuary suffered major damage in 1954 during a hurricane, congregational members decided to rebuild and relocate at our current site on Watson Street. After a year of worship at the Charlotte Avenue School, our present building was dedicated for use in 1956. In 1969, a fire in our sanctuary caused great damage, but members, undaunted by the formidable task before them, restored the church to its present condition.

This is our heritage in Nashua—more than 300 years. Upon it, as well as an antecedent Christian tradition stretching back many hundreds of years more, we stand and engage in the expression of our faith.

Wind and fire have occasionally wreaked havoc on our past structures and differences of perspective have sometimes divided our fellowship, but still that one Word stands. We who now constitute this body called Pilgrim Congregational Church find ourselves worshipping, serving, and enjoying fellowship together, expressing our faith in the Spirit of that Word, and building on the heritage we have been given.

— from an article by Rev. Edward Koonz, 1995