Great Fire of 1882

Hebron Center was substantially changed on a windy day in April of 1882 when a spark from the Hendee House and store (located where Route 85 now heads toward Gilead) was blown by the wind toward the Congregational Church and the east to Route 316. Most of the houses along the north side of the Green burned. The fire jumped over the Old Town Hall and burned the structures where the Douglas Library and American Legion now stand.

This tour will take you from The Church of Hope to Ted’s Supermarket.

Congregational Church 
1 Main Street

This Gothic Revival structure is one of Hebron’s most remarkable examples of religious architecture. Compare it in your mind with St. Peters Church and the United Brethren of Hebron Synagogue along Church Street. 

This church was designed by Ephraim J. Wilcox after the fire of 1882 and takes medieval Gothic details like pointed arches and asymmetrical detail and renders them in wood. The original Hebron Meetinghouse stood where the traffic light is located.

In 1828 the location was changed to where this building now stands. It burned in the Fire of 1882

Hebron, Connecticut Bicentennial 1708-1908

Until the new Connecticut Constitution of 1818, Congregationalism was the official religion of Connecticut. If you wanted to practice a different religion, you needed legal permission to do so which would enable your tax money to support a different church. While Episcopalians and Methodists gained the right to vote in 1818, African Americans and Indigenous People were denied that right by the Constitution of 1818.

Think about it

The U.S. Constitution prohibits the establishment of a national religion. Why then could a state like Connecticut continue to have a state church under the U. S. constitution?
Do you think religion and government should be separate institutions?

Where to go next?

Follow the sidewalk and walk toward Route 316 (Wall Street)