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HTMLText_18127A3F_1663_8BEF_4175_B0DF8CE38BFE.html = LOREM IPSUM DOLOR SIT AMET, CONSECTETUR ADIPISCING ELIT. MAECENAS CONGUE EROS MAGNA, ID BIBENDUM EROS MALESUADA VITAE.
Address: line 1
Address: line 2
Address: line 3
GPS: xxxxxxxxxx
LOCATION
LOREM IPSUM DOLOR SIT AMET, CONSECTETUR ADIPISCING ELIT. MAECENAS CONGUE EROS MAGNA, ID BIBENDUM EROS MALESUADA VITAE.
Address: line 1
Address: line 2
Address: line 3
GPS: xxxxxxxxxx
Since the sanctuary was so much more ornate than other Congregational sanctuaries during this time period, it was criticized as being ostentatious. Built in the Romanesque style, it features trompe l'oeil painting, red carpeting and red cushions on pews. Some colored glass was even added to the windows.
The sanctuary still houses the original gas light fixtures, now rewired for electricity. At the time this building was constructed, Lee was considered the finest town in the area and the grandeur of the building reflects that status. The building accommodates 600 people in the main part of the sanctuary and up to a thousand with the gallery seating.
At the time of construction, the church expected that membership would grow from its 500. The opposite happened. As the town boomed, Italian stonemasons immigrated to Lee to work in the marble quarries and Irishmen came to work in the paper mills. Women in Lee married these men and became Catholic.
Welcome to the First Congregational Church of Lee and to the town of Lee, Massachusetts, the gateway to the Berkshires. With its iconic wooden steeple, the striking Lee Congregational Church serves as a welcome to the town and to the Berkshires.
It is the tallest timber frame steeple in New England and perhaps in the United States. Complete with a clock tower, bell tower, lighthouse, and spire, the building you see before you is the third Congregational Church building to serve Lee.
Dedicated in 1858, it was built following the destruction of the second church building in an 1857 fire that destroyed much of Main Street.
Before Europeans came to this region, the land belonged to the Mohicans.
During the Revolutionary War, Cape Cod fishermen, who could no longer fish because of the British blockade of Boston Harbor, came with their families to the Berkshires.
Their first settlement was Dodgetown in East Lee, but they soon moved to the area around the Housatonic River. One of these families was the Foote family. Descendants of that family are still members of the congregation and active members.
The Congregationalists first met in homes and barns. In 1777, Lee was incorporated and there was a need for a meeting house to conduct town business as well as church services. The state mandated that a church community exist as a prerequisite for incorporation, so the early history of the town and church are very much connected.
Welcome to the First Congregational Church of Lee and to the town of Lee, Massachusetts, the gateway to the Berkshires. With its iconic wooden steeple, the striking Lee Congregational Church serves as a welcome to the town and to the Berkshires.
It is the tallest timber frame steeple in New England and perhaps in the United States. Complete with a clock tower, bell tower, lighthouse, and spire, the building you see before you is the third Congregational Church building to serve Lee.
Dedicated in 1858, it was built following the destruction of the second church building in an 1857 fire that destroyed much of Main Street.
Before Europeans came to this region, the land belonged to the Mohicans.
During the Revolutionary War, Cape Cod fishermen, who could no longer fish because of the British blockade of Boston Harbor, came with their families to the Berkshires.
Their first settlement was Dodgetown in East Lee, but they soon moved to the area around the Housatonic River. One of these families was the Foote family. Descendants of that family are still members of the congregation and active members.
The Congregationalists first met in homes and barns. In 1777, Lee was incorporated and there was a need for a meeting house to conduct town business as well as church services. The state mandated that a church community exist as a prerequisite for incorporation, so the early history of the town and church are very much connected.
The fountain under wraps here is an early design of Daniel Chester French, who later created the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial. The gift of temperance activists, the fountain aimed to provide a healthy way for men, horses, and dogs to get water. The fountain was named after Amelia Jeanette Kilbon, who died before seeing it dedicated in 1899.
The fountain is made of Lee marble, and the carving was led by Dante Baccolini, a locally renowned Lee sculptor.
The striking portrait on the front of the fountain is of Chief Konkapot of the Mohican tribe, a leader who embraced Christianity and supported the American cause during the Revolutionary War.
The fountain was moved from its original location at Main Street and Railroad Street. It also stood near Memorial hall for awhile.
After the fountain was moved to the park, long winters with no cover resulted in a state of serious disrepair. The fountain was carefully restored by Verne Tower of Richmond, and rededicated in 2019.
The church is the tallest wooden structure in New England. From ground to the tip of the spire, the height is 195 feet. Over more than 150 years, the steeple weathered the harsh Berkshires weather, suffering a 1918 lighting strike, and water damage, leading to damage and loss of several boards.
It has been faithfully repaired over the years to preserve the iconic silhouette from 1857.
By the early 2000s, it was determined that the top half of the spire was in precarious shape. Much of the timber frame structure was rotted, and a complete rebuild was needed. For that, it had to come down for repairs.
The upper 35 feet section was removed and completely rebuilt by Moore's Steeple People. The original timber frame construction technique was used in the repair. The rest of the spire was then repainted.
The supports for the steeple, which run all the way down into the church's basement, were significantly reinforced so that the steeple could be safely restored to a fully vertical position.
The bell you see here is the sixth bell to grace the Lee Congregational Church. It was made by Jones and Company of Troy, New York, and weighs almost 2000 pounds. It rings every hour and is audible throughout the downtown area.
This park is owned by the Congregational Church, though the church has generously hosted many town events and permitted other organizations such as the Lee Chamber of Commerce to use the property.
The congregation's earliest meeting house, built in 1780, was located at the south side of the park, close to Park street.
The original structure was a very rough, unheated, boxy building, 36 feet by 48 feet, with its ceiling open to the rafters, parchment windows and simple wooden benches. On Sundays, members met for two hours in the morning, had lunch, and then returned to church in the afternoon.
Upon George Washington's death, women used their good black silk dresses to drape the meeting house in mourning.
Coming out of the central structure that houses the clock mechanism is the clock drive rod, which turns the hands of each of the faces of the clock.
You can also see the monumental 800-pound weight of the clock, which are wound weekly via a system of pulleys.
After the town's incorporation in 1777, Lee's first meeting house was constructed in 1780, and served as a gathering place for both town meetings and religious services. It was a simple building, unpainted and unheated. In 1800, a new structure was built to accommodate the growing community.
That second building burned in 1857 in a fire that started on Main Street. A blazing shingle struck the roof, so the fire burned from the top of the church down. On that January night, it was 23 to 25 degrees below zero, and men were also trying to save their own homes. A Greek-style chapel, an 1854 addition to the church, also burned. The decision was made to save the beautiful eight room parsonage the church had built in 1851.
After the fire, this structure was quickly built on the site of the former church building.
By 1857, the town was growing economically. The Housatonic Railroad now came through Lee, enabling the marble industry to flourish. Marble joined the 25 existing paper mills as pillars of the town's industrial base.
The influx of new residents that followed the industrial development encouraged the construction of a building that could accommodate as many as a thousand people.
This mechanism is a Seth Thomas clock movement that drives the Turret and Main Clock Company of Boston set of tower clocks. It also makes the bell strike hourly. The clock is wound once a week by dedicated church members. The mechanism was last restored in 1986 by Ed Schmidt.
The first organ was installed in the church in 1852, but it was lost in that 1857 fire.
Installed in the architectural unique cantilevered organ and choir loft, the current instrument is a 1927 Hook and Hastings organ. This organ originally contained 1,290 pipes, and 24 additional pipes were added later.
As early as the 1970s, there were concerns about the maintenance of the organ, and by 1999, the church stopped using the organ. So many of the notes wouldn't sound that the instrument was virtually unplayable. The organ had suffered water damage, and often had ciphers or stuck notes. The leathers were worn, certain bass notes were unplayable after a lightning strike fused some of the wires, and some of the smallest pipes were damaged after being stepped on.
The organ was repaired and rededicated in 2014. As part of the rebuild, the organ was converted from an electro-pneumatic switching system to MIDI-compatible solid-state switching system.
Also, the electro-pneumatic action system was converted to an electrical-mechanical action system. A set of MIDI keyboards was added at the front of the sanctuary as a second console.
The organ chamber was also cleaned and waterproofed, and some of the caning replaced on the front panels. The beautifully restored organ is once again a highlight of the church celebrations.
For much of its history, the church raised operational funds by way of pew rentals, where members of the church could pay varying sums to rent pews that were deemed more or less prestigious.
At the front of the church, the amen pews conspicuously running perpendicular to the rest of the seating, were paid for by the elites of Lee. These pews ensured that the elites could display themselves and their finery to the rest of the congregation. The balcony pews on the other hand were free and offered no cushions.
In 1833 in Massachusetts, separation of church and state became the law. In 1918, pew rentals were no longer allowed. This law led to a more democratic church where you couldn't pay for you where you wanted to sit.
The church community remains deeply involved with projects that support residents of this region, as well as projects farther afield. The church houses weekly community suppers, frequent craft fairs, and concerts.
Church members participate in service projects in various parts of the country, such as the regular annual youth trips to Virginia.
Lee Congregational Church is committed to being an inclusive, welcoming community, embracing diversity in all its forms.
Each Sunday, we make this commitment with the following words:
Whoever we are or wherever we are on our faith journey, we are welcome here.
No matter what our ethnic background, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, family structure, marital, economic, or immigration status, age, race, or abilities, we are welcome here.
The carefully painted trompe l'oeil on the ceiling and walls fools the eye, appearing as if it is three dimensional molding. The trompe l'oeil was completed by itinerant French and German artists at a cost of $545.
With over a century of candle smoke and fumes from the coal and wood-burning furnaces, the painting had darkened, and in the 1970s, as the community discussed restoration options, there was talk of painting over the trompe l'oeil as other churches had done. Luckily the membership heeded voices calling for restoration.
Because the paint used in the trompe l'oeil was water-based, the method used was surprising -- erasers. In the late 1970s, a crew of eight teenagers was employed to erase the entire ceiling and walls.
Since the sanctuary was so much more ornate than other Congregational sanctuaries during this time period, it was criticized as being ostentatious. Built in the Romanesque style, it features trompe l'oeil painting, red carpeting and red cushions on pews. Some colored glass was even added to the windows.
The sanctuary still houses the original gas light fixtures, now rewired for electricity.
At the time this building was constructed, Lee was considered the finest town in the area and the grandeur of the building reflects that status. The building accommodates 600 people in the main part of the sanctuary and up to a thousand with the gallery seating.
At the time of construction, the church expected that membership would grow from its 500. The opposite happened. As the town boomed, Italian stonemasons immigrated to Lee to work in the marble quarries and Irishmen came to work in the paper mills. Women in Lee married these men and became Catholic.
The church is the tallest wooden structure in New England. From ground to the tip of the spire, the height is 195 feet. Over more than 150 years, the steeple weathered the harsh Berkshires weather, suffering a 1918 lighting strike, and water damage, leading to damage and loss of several boards.
It has been faithfully repaired over the years to preserve the iconic silhouette from 1857.
By the early 2000s, it was determined that the top half of the spire was in precarious shape. Much of the timber frame structure was rotted, and a complete rebuild was needed. For that, it had to come down for repairs.
The upper 35 feet section was removed and completely rebuilt by Moore's Steeple People. The original timber frame construction technique was used in the repair. The rest of the spire was then repainted.
The supports for the steeple, which run all the way down into the church's basement, were significantly reinforced so that the steeple could be safely restored to a fully vertical position.
The church community remains deeply involved with projects that support residents of this region, as well as projects farther afield. The church houses weekly community suppers, frequent craft fairs, and concerts.
Church members participate in service projects in various parts of the country, such as the regular annual youth trips to Virginia.
Lee Congregational Church is committed to being an inclusive, welcoming community, embracing diversity in all its forms.
Each Sunday, we make this commitment with the following words:
Whoever we are or wherever we are on our faith journey, we are welcome here.
No matter what our ethnic background, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, family structure, marital, economic, or immigration status, age, race, or abilities, we are welcome here.
The fountain under wraps here is an early design of Daniel Chester French, who later created the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial. The gift of temperance activists, the fountain aimed to provide a healthy way for men, horses, and dogs to get water. The fountain was named after Amelia Jeanette Kilbon, who died before seeing it dedicated in 1899.
The fountain is made of Lee marble, and the carving was led by Dante Baccolini, a locally renowned Lee sculptor.
The striking portrait on the front of the fountain is of Chief Konkapot of the Mohican tribe, a leader who embraced Christianity and supported the American cause during the Revolutionary War.
The fountain was moved from its original location at Main Street and Railroad Street. It also stood near Memorial hall for awhile.
After the fountain was moved to the park, long winters with no cover resulted in a state of serious disrepair. The fountain was carefully restored by Verne Tower of Richmond, and rededicated in 2019.
The bell you see here is the sixth bell to grace the Lee Congregational Church. It was made by Jones and Company of Troy, New York, and weighs almost 2000 pounds. It rings every hour and is audible throughout the downtown area.
The first organ was installed in the church in 1852, but it was lost in that 1857 fire.
Installed in the architectural unique cantilevered organ and choir loft, the current instrument is a 1927 Hook and Hastings organ. This organ originally contained 1,290 pipes, and 24 additional pipes were added later.
As early as the 1970s, there were concerns about the maintenance of the organ, and by 1999, the church stopped using the organ. So many of the notes wouldn't sound that the instrument was virtually unplayable. The organ had suffered water damage, and often had ciphers or stuck notes. The leathers were worn, certain bass notes were unplayable after a lightning strike fused some of the wires, and some of the smallest pipes were damaged after being stepped on.
The organ was repaired and rededicated in 2014. As part of the rebuild, the organ was converted from an electro-pneumatic switching system to MIDI-compatible solid-state switching system.
Also, the electro-pneumatic action system was converted to an electrical-mechanical action system. A set of MIDI keyboards was added at the front of the sanctuary as a second console.
The organ chamber was also cleaned and waterproofed, and some of the caning replaced on the front panels. The beautifully restored organ is once again a highlight of the church celebrations.
This park is owned by the Congregational Church, though the church has generously hosted many town events and permitted other organizations such as the Lee Chamber of Commerce to use the property.
The congregation's earliest meeting house, built in 1780, was located at the south side of the park, close to Park street.
The original structure was a very rough, unheated, boxy building, 36 feet by 48 feet, with its ceiling open to the rafters, parchment windows and simple wooden benches. On Sundays, members met for two hours in the morning, had lunch, and then returned to church in the afternoon.
Upon George Washington's death, women used their good black silk dresses to drape the meeting house in mourning.
For much of its history, the church raised operational funds by way of pew rentals, where members of the church could pay varying sums to rent pews that were deemed more or less prestigious.
At the front of the church, the amen pews conspicuously running perpendicular to the rest of the seating, were paid for by the elites of Lee. These pews ensured that the elites could display themselves and their finery to the rest of the congregation. The balcony pews on the other hand were free and offered no cushions.
In 1833 in Massachusetts ,separation of church and state became the law. In 1918, pew rentals were no longer allowed. This law led to a more democratic church where you couldn't pay for you where you wanted to sit.
This mechanism is a Seth Thomas clock movement that drives the Turret and Main Clock Company of Boston set of tower clocks. It also makes the bell strike hourly. The clock is wound once a week by dedicated church members. The mechanism was last restored in 1986 by Ed Schmidt.
Coming out of the central structure that houses the clock mechanism is the clock drive rod, which turns the hands of each of the faces of the clock. You can also see the monumental 800-pound weight of the clock, which are wound weekly via a system of pulleys.
After the town's incorporation in 1777, Lee's first meeting house was constructed in 1780, and served as a gathering place for both town meetings and religious services. It was a simple building, unpainted and unheated. In 1800, a new structure was built to accommodate the growing community.
That second building burned in 1857 in a fire that started on Main Street. A blazing shingle struck the roof, so the fire burned from the top of the church down. On that January night, it was 23 to 25 degrees below zero, and men were also trying to save their own homes. A Greek-style chapel, an 1854 addition to the church, also burned. The decision was made to save the beautiful eight room parsonage the church had built in 1851.
After the fire, this structure was quickly built on the site of the former church building.
By 1857, the town was growing economically. The Housatonic Railroad now came through Lee, enabling the marble industry to flourish. Marble joined the 25 existing paper mills as pillars of the town's industrial base.
The influx of new residents that followed the industrial development, encouraged the construction of a building that could accommodate as many as a thousand people.
The carefully painted trompe l'oeil on the ceiling and walls fools the eye, appearing as if it is three dimensional molding. The trompe l'oeil was completed by itinerant French and German artists at a cost of $545.
With over a century of candle smoke and fumes from the coal and wood-burning furnaces, the painting had darkened, and in the 1970s, as the community discussed restoration options, there was talk of painting over the trompe l'oeil as other churches had done. Luckily the membership heeded voices calling for restoration.
Because the paint used in the trompe l'oeil was water-based, the method used was surprising -- erasers. In the late 1970s, a crew of eight teenagers was employed to erase the entire ceiling and walls.