Address: 1 Main Street
Inventory Num: 12
Location: Northeast corner at Route 85
Year Built: 1885
Builder: Ephraim J. Wilcox
Style: Stick Style
Current Use: First Congregational Church
(District)
1993
Notable Architectural Features:
- There is a heavy vertical stree typical of stick style, adding to this influence is the vertical boarding, the tall slender towers, the steeply pitched roof, and the lancet windows
- Large bell tower on east side of main facade
- Tower on west side to balance the facade
- Vertical boarding creates a frieze
- Lancet windows with hood moldings
- Doorway has heavy chamfered brackets supporting the hood and chamfered half-timbering on doors
- Steeply pitched gable
- The interior boards and beams are of Chestnut (according to Don)
Importance:First services held on February 18, 1883 in the NEW Congregational Church (the 2nd on the present site)
(Dorothy Brehant Taggart, Historian)November 9, 1716 a committee of the General Assembly visited the citizens of
Hebron and "approved the site of the First Congregational Church on the 'westernmost
end of the Green'" diagonally southwest of the present church. This first Meetinghouse
was "set a-fire" and burned. In 1748, a second Meeting House was erected on the site of
the First. The Reverend Dr. Benjamin Pomeroy, leader in the Great Awakening, began
his fifty-year ministry in Hebron at the first church (1735-1785) and his pulpit is in
continued use at the present church.
(Dorothy Brehant Taggart, Historian)Dr. Pomeroy, a graduate of Yale College, married the daughter of his best friend, the
Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, founder of Moor's Indian Charity School. The school was
moved to Hanover, New Hampshire by the Earl of Dartmouth, and renamed Dartmouth
College. Pomeroy taught Hebrew, Greek and Latin to the native students at Moor's.
Wheelock appointed Pomeroy as the first Trustee of Dartmouth College.
Dr. Pomeroy served as Chaplain in the French and Indian Wars and the Revolutionary
War. He returned to Hebron to deliver his sermon on the Sundays when there was no
interim pastor. The Reverend Doctor Pomeroy is interred in the Old Hebron Cemetery on
Wall Street. His monument is a very large table stone.
(Dorothy Brehant Taggart, Historian)The Red Barn and land on Church property was purchased from Don Robinson. The
property was a part of the Everett G. Lord and Grace (Pendleton) Lord farm. The
Victorian house and other outbuildings were razed to widen and redirect Route #85.The
barn is presently used for missions by Men's Fellowship and the Missions Committee of
the Church. It is well kept.
(Dorothy Brehant Taggart, Historian)Observation Post #52 - U.S.Army - American Legion - World War II on Church
property, was built on Post Hill,
Columbia, 1/10 of a mile from the Hebron town line. During the War, it was served by
over 300 citizens of the towns of Hebron, and Columbia. After the War, Deacon Lucius
Robinson ofthe Congregational Church purchased the Post from the government and had
it moved to Hebron. According to correspondence from the U.S. Air Force, the Post is
believed to be the only one remaining. During the War, the osts were built all along the
Atlantic and Pacific coasts. All airplanes flying overhead were reported to Central
Headquarters. We reported to Boston. Those who manned the Post served two-hour
shifts. It is now being maintained as a mini-museum. Many artifacts have been donated
by local people and :trom other towns. It includes the desk with charts used for
identification of aircraft-donated by the Smithsonian Institute, and articles pertinent to
the wartime Post. The Post is open during the Maple Festival and on Memorial Day or upon request. A boy is working on the Post presently, as work to earn his Eagle Scout award. The Post represents a time when we were threatened by war, and volunteers took up the vigilant watch - before radar and other technologies.
(Dorothy Brehant Taggart, Historian)The Civilian Aircraft Observation Post [Freeman # 52] has been moved to the Hebron Town Office Building complex at 15 Gilead Street.
(M.A. Foote [for HHPC]) 
