Where do you sit in the sanctuary?  Are you someone who moves around sitting in one pew on a Sunday and another Sunday trying out a different pew?  Or are you someone who sits in the same area of the sanctuary or in the same pew each Sunday? For many new people who enter the sanctuary from the front door, choosing a pew along the center aisle might be appealing.  When our sanctuary was new in 1846, the pews were a source of income (taxation) for the church, so people didn’t enjoy the freedom that we have to sit wherever we choose.  Was that something unique to our church?  Were the pews all the same fee?  How was it managed?  We’ll learn more in this month’s article and in our sanctuary archive display.

This is a drawing of our second church that was built in 1806 and stood in the same location as our present church. Despite our second church serving the needs of our congregation, as the town, our church and Bowdoin College grew in number, it was agreed that we needed more pews within the church.  According to Rev. Thompson Ashby’s history,  accommodations had been made in 1834 to increase the number of pews within the existing church, but within ten years, there was a need for more pews.  Consideration was given to enlarging the church or dividing the Parish and building another Meeting House in another part of the town.  Because a decision had not been made by 1844, a committee was selected to make a decision on enlarging the present church without paying for the cost by taxes levied on the pews.  By that August, however,  it was agreed by church members that this committee would indeed raise “$400 by leveling a tax on the pews and seats of the Meeting House.”  In addition, those individuals who were “owners” of  the wall pews requested that aisles be created for more comfort. 

By that Fall, Bowdoin College was also aware that their old chapel was in need of repair and requested that Richard Upjohn, the New York City architect who designed Trinity Church in NYC, be invited to Bowdoin to provide his advice on a new chapel.  Because Professor Smyth from Bowdoin was also on our church committee, Upjohn looked at our church during that same visit to Bowdoin.  By November, a letter from Upjohn advised our church committee to stop any plans for enlarging our 40-year-old second church and to build a new church.  Our second church was taken down after the last worship was held on April 6, 1845.

The first worship service was held in our third and present Meeting House on March 22, 1846. Imagine them building our impressive and detailed structure in less than a year?  Because of the larger size of the sanctuary, the numbers on the pews had to be adjusted so people who “owned” pews in the former sanctuary could have a similar pew (view) setting in the new church.  Below is a photo of the 1846 pew chart with the names of the people or family that “owned” the pew by paying a taxation on the pew to the church. The original pew chart is on display in our sanctuary archive display.  In our church archives, we also have folders with the taxation rates for each pew dating from the 1820’s through 1870’s, a common practice among churches at the same time. 

Because there were additional pews that were not purchased by individuals or families, the Parish Fund would “own” these that could be rented for “sittings” when someone wanted a pew for one Sunday or for a few months. This auction notice below in our archive collection has no date, but was likely held in the mid-1800’s.

Below is a sample of one of the Pew Deeds that was a legal document of ownership much like a deed to owning a house. This deed for Pew #71 (Pew #74 in the former church) is dated March 7, 1846, and was the pew of Ruth Thibodeau’s great, great (great?) grandfather!

Below is the assessed fee for each pew in our present church along with the payments made.  Pews were assessed value based upon their location within the church with those pews along the center aisle and closer to the pulpit having a higher value.  The originals of these documents are on display in our sanctuary.

CHURCH BULLETIN FROM 100 YEARS AGO (1924):

(Click on the images to see an enlarged version)

CHURCH BULLETIN FROM 50 YEARS AGO (1974):

(Click on the images to see an enlarged version)

Enjoy worshiping with us from whatever pew appeals to you… or watching from wherever you desire online!  God bless you for a safe and lovely September.