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History Thomas Allen of Northampton, a 20 year old graduate of Harvard College, became the first minister of the church in 1764 at a salary of 60 pounds, 40 cords of wood, and ownership of a 100 acre lot bounded by the North, East, and First Streets and extending beyond Maplewood Avenue. Allen is perhaps best remembered as the “Fighting Parson” who, during the Revolutionary War era carried a musket into his pulpit and fired the first shot against the British at the Battle of Bennington. In 1789 the noted architect, Charles Bulfinch, drew the design for a new meeting house to accommodate the expanding Pittsfield parish. The town again taxed itself to build and furnish the new meeting house. Completed in 1793 the building had an open belfry rather than a spire and a bell “of excellent and remarkable power.” Toward the end of Allen’s 46-year pastorate, and during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, bitter political difference arose in the congregation. In opposition to Allen’s advocacy of populism, a number of Federalist church members seceded and formed the Union Parish, for which a meeting house was built on the site of the present South Congregational Church. In 1842, John Todd of Rutland Vermont, a Yale and Andover graduate, was called to begin a 31 year ministry at First Church. In 1851 the Bulfinch Church was partially destroyed by fire. Under Todd’s leadership the parish voted to build a stone church large enough to seat 800, exclusive of the gallery. Leopold Eidlitz, a Bohemian-born resident of New York, was chosen as the architect, and a New London church served as the model, omitting one of its two towers. Thus the third and current church building was constructed and dedicated in 1853. A Hook organ was installed in the south gallery at that time, and in 1876 was replaced by a Johnson organ behind the pulpit. In 1912 a new Ernest M. Skinner organ was installed in chambers created for it. The present Austin organ was installed in 1952 and modified and enlarged in 1960. Thirty years after the completion of the church the magnificent Tiffany south window, a gift of the granddaughter of Thomas Allen in memory of her parents, and the Harding Memorial Window on the east side of the sanctuary were installed. Other stained glass windows were subsequently added. In 1952 a $200,000 renovation program was begun for remodeling and redecorating the sanctuary and rebuilding and converting the Parish House into a modern Church School and Parish Hall. At this time the church and parish, which had existed as separate entities for 188 years, legally combined to form the First Church of Christ in Pittsfield, Congregational. In 1846, when the church was overtaxing the accommodation of the Bulfinch building, black members of First Church withdrew and formed the Second Congregational Church with First Church members leading the drive to finance the purchase of land and the construction of a building for the new parish. In 1847, the South Congregational Parish Colony was organized. By 1850, with the financial support of First Church, 150 members were amicably dismissed to become the initial congregation of the newly constituted South Meeting House. To minister to the needs of the expanding ethnic communities of Pittsfield, the French Church was established in 1899 and the Italian Church in 1908, both normally meeting in the First Church until they were dissolved and their members incorporated into First Church in 1955. In 1958 the sanctuary was redecorated and the chancel was changed from pulpit-centered to a divided structure. During the past few years physical improvements to our building have included a new slate roof, restoration of stained glass windows, installation of an elevator in the parish house, renovation of the chancel, gold-leafing of the organ façade pipes, and installation of hardwood flooring in the chancel area. The church is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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