Lyme’s First Ecclesiastical Society‘s first Meeting House was constructed in 1665-6 and the first minister was Moses Noyes. A second was built in 1689 and in 1738, both earlier structures were dismantled to build the even larger third Meeting House. All three were located on Johnny Cake Hill. When the third church was destroyed after being hit by lightning in 1815, the fourth Meeting House was built in 1816-17 on Lyme Street in Old Lyme. Its architect was Samuel Belcher, who also designed the John Sill and William Noyes houses on Lyme Street. The fourth Meeting House burned on July 3, 1907–the 92nd anniversary of the burning of the third meetinghouse. It was replaced in 1910 by the current Meeting House of the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, a replica of its predecessor. The American impressionist artists who frequented Lyme in the early twentieth century often painted the church, most notably Childe Hassam.
