Former Methodist Church, Coventry (1867)

Coventry was the birthplace of Lorenzo Dow (1777-1834), the famous itinerant Methodist preacher and major figure of the Second Great Awakening. The earliest records of a Methodist Society in town date to 1822, but there were no doubt Methodist meetings in town before then. The town’s first Methodist church was built in the 1840s, in what is now Patriot’s Park. In 1867, it was replaced with a new Italianate-style church, erected on Main Street in South Coventry. The church lost its steeple in the 1938 hurricane and it was never replaced. By 1944, membership in the church had dwindled such that the remaining parishioners could no longer maintain the building. In 1949, they merged with the Bolton Methodist Church. The former Coventry Methodist Church was used for a number of years as a community house for meetings and gatherings and in the 1990s contained antiques stores. In 2003, it was refurbished as retail space.

Booth & Dimock Memorial Library (1913)

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The library association in Coventry was formed in 1880. With help from a donation (requiring a matching sum from the town) from a wealthy California doctor, H. G. Cogswell, who had been cared for as a homeless 10-year-old by a woman from Coventry, the Library found a home in 1894 in a small former-Post Office building. The current library, known as the Booth & Dimock Memorial Library, was built in 1912-1913. Construction was funded by a bequest from Henry Dimock, a New York lawyer born in South Coventry, in memory of his grandfather, Rev. Chauncey Booth, minister of Coventry’s First Congregational Church, and of his father, Dr. Timothy Dimock. The old Greek Revival-style Thomas Clark Homestead, which had previously stood on the property, was torn down in 1911, amid much controversy, to make way for the new library. The Georgian Revival library building was designed by James M. Darrach of New York. A modern addition was constructed in 1987-1989, with a duplicate of the architecture of the old front facade being reproduced on the side of the building facing the expanded parking lot.

Coventry Visitors’ Center (1876)

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Constructed in 1876, to celebrate the Nation’s centennial, the building which now serves as Coventry‘s Visitors’ Center was originally the Town Office. The bankruptcy of the Tracy-Elliot Mills in 1929 led to the town’s takeover of the company’s properties and the conversion of their office building to serve as the town’s offices. The 1876 building then served as a post office through the Second World War, but later fell into disrepair. The building was restored and used by the town’s Bicentennial Commission in 1976 and was again refurbished by the Coventry Historical Society to serve as a Visitors’ Center on Main Street. Since 2002, it has been operated by the Village Improvement Society.

Capron-Philips House (1864)

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The Italianate-style Capron-Philips House, at 1129 Main Street in Coventry, was built sometime in the 1860s. It served for many years as a post office and later as an apothecary shop (or drugstore). The house is on a corner at an important and once quite busy intersection. A large elm stood nearby, in the middle of Mason Street, until 1938. It was known as the Meetinghouse Tree because notices were posted on it.

First Congregational Church of Coventry (1849)

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The first Congregational meetinghouse in Coventry was built on the green in 1715. In 1842, the congregation became divided over the issue of whether to build a new church or retain the original structure. One group built the current church building, known as the “Village Church,” on Main Street in 1849, while the other repaired the original building and turned it to face the green. The two churches coexisted separately until they were reunited in 1869, thenceforward using the 1849 building, now called First Church. The steeple was destroyed by lightning in 1903 and a replacement was soon constructed.