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The Church Built on Thetford Hill
Researched and Written by Janine Weins
(Posted 5/24/06)

According to Charles Latham, Jr., President of the Thetford Historical Society, Thetford Hill may be the first community in the United States to have been sited, planned, and developed by a real estate developer.

In 1759, during the French and Indian War, Quebec fell to the British and the area now known as Vermont became open to British control. Shortly thereafter, the Colony of New York made a jurisdictional claim to the region.

From 1741 until 1766, Benning Wentworth was the colonial governor of New Hampshire. His authority extended from Portsmouth on the Atlantic Ocean to the Connecticut River. Starting in 1749, Governor Wentworth, in an act of indifference to New York's claim and in an effort to increase his personal wealth, granted, for a fee, large tracts of land in what is now Vermont. The first town to receive one of Governor Wentworth's New Hampshire Grants was Bennington. In 1761, Governor Wentworth sold the land he named after Viscount Thetford to a group of proprietors from Hebron, Connecticut.

In 1773, a church was organized in Thetford. In 1780, a simple log worship house was built near where Interstate 91 and Route 113 now intersect. The log church soon needed to be replaced. At the time, Thetford had five villages: East Thetford, Thetford Center, Post Mills, Union Village, and Rice's Mills. These villages, like those across the colonial states, were located near mills and/or transportation arteries.

Beriah Loomis offered to build a new church for Thetford. Rather than locating the church in one of the existing villages, he proposed building the church on Thetford Hill on the condition that he could lay out the town common and retain some building lots. Beriah Loomis felt a church on the hilltop would be closer to God and the views towards New Hampshire and Mt. Moosilaukee would make the homes he built appealing to potential buyers.

In 1787, Beriah Loomis built the building that today is known as Thetford's First Congregational Church. He located the church on the south end of Thetford Hill Common. He then built four homes on Thetford Hill. Two of those homes, both located on the east side of Academy Road—the Beriah Loomis House and the Loomis House—remain and are considered showpieces of the Thetford Hill Historic District.

The church Beriah Loomis built in 1787 is now considered the oldest meetinghouse in the state of Vermont to be in continuous operation. In 1830, the church building was rolled on logs to its present location on the north side of Route 113. In 1858, it was remodeled and the pews rebuilt. In 1948, inside plumbing and a room for church suppers were added. An elevator was added in 2000.

On Sunday at 4:00 PM, Mila Filatova and several of her best students will be presenting a benefit recital at Thetford's First Congregational Church. The public is invited to attend. Mila Filatova is a pianist and concertmaster who has performed extensively in the United States and Russia. She currently resides in the Manchester, New Hampshire area, where she is Concertmaster for the New Hampshire Youth Choral Academy.