Bethel United Methodist Church (1861)

The formation of the Methodist Church in Bethel grew out of a religious revival in the 1830s. With churches in Danbury being too crowded, in 1837 Methodists in Bethel began meeting in a private home. In 1847-1848, the congregation erected their own hall on a site where a Masonic Hall would later be built. Work on the current Bethel United Methodist Church, located at 141 Greenwood Avenue, began in 1860 and the building was dedicated in August, 1861. It is a stylistically eclectic edifice that features a Greek Revival cornice and pilasters, Italianate round-arched windows, and a Gothic Revival tower. The church had to be restored after a fire in 1884. The steeple was also rebuilt after a lightning strike in 1971.

Rev. Richard Varick Dey House (1823)

Built about 1823, the Varick Dey House at 39 Meeting House Lane, in the Greenfield Hill section of Fairfield, displays a Dutch Colonial influence combined with elements of the Federal style. The long steep-pitched roof extends to the level of the first floor, which has a recessed veranda. Tradition holds that the house was designed by Lavinia A. Scott, the young bride of Rev. Richard Varick Dey (1801-1837). He was pastor of the Greenfield Hill Congregational Church from 1823 to 1828. As related in Ye Church and Parish of Greenfield: the Story of an Historic Church in an Historic Town, 1725-1913 (1913), by George H. Merwin:

There are very few persons living to-day who can remember Mr. Dey, but he has gone down in history as being a handsome young man of commanding presence and a pastor who at once became a general favorite in the parish. He also became popular outside of his own parish, and multitudes flocked to hear him; in fact it has been said that the old meeting-house was not large enough to accommodate the congregation.

[. . .] Not since the days of Dwight had there been such a flow of eloquence from the Greenfield pulpit, and it is doubtful if any of his successors for many years compared with him as a public speaker. Many of his parishioners who recognized his ability were loath to part with him when the consociation dissolved the pastoral relation in December, 1828. So great was the attendance when he delivered his farewell sermon that the galleries of the old meeting-house were propped to sustain the additional weight.

When Rev. and Mrs. Dey first came to Greenfield they boarded with Captain Nichols, the father of Mrs. Milbank. Later Mr. Dey’s father built for him the house now standing northwest of the present church, and known as the old Samuel Nichols place. Members of the parish assisted in building the house and also furnished much of the lumber. Mrs. Dey drew the plans for the house and planted the shrubbery and trees which still adorn the place.

Rev. Varick Dey was also known to the young P. T. Barnum, and the famous showman relates several stories about the reverend in his autobiography. As related in Funny Stories Told by Phineas T. Barnum (1890):

In my young days the Rev. Richard Varick Dey, of Greenfield, Conn., often came to Bethel to preach or lecture. He was a very able and eloquent, though somewhat eccentric man, popular even with people who did not go to church regularly, but not liked, and perhaps feared, by the too strait-laced; and his lectures and also his sermons were rich in wit as well as pathos. He was very free in saying exactly what he believed and thought, both in and out of the pulpit, and never hesitated to rub against or to knock in the head any particular popular dogma or theological tenet that he himself did not hold. This proclivity now and again brought him into uncomfortably warm water with the church, and he was either suspended or brought to trial for some alleged heresy or breach of ministerial duty. At such times he lectured in different towns, and so supported his family. My grandfather was a Universalist, and “on general principles” was opposed to Presbyterians, though many of them were among his warmest personal friends. He was very much attached to Mr. Dey, and induced him to deliver in Bethel a series of Sunday evening lectures. I remember one of them on “Charity,” which resulted “practically” in a contribution of more than fifty dollars.

31 Chaplin Street, Chaplin (1830)

The building at 31 Chaplin Street in Chaplin is an interesting composite structure, made up of what were once three separate buildings. They were brought together to form the current house in 1936. The earliest section was a mercantile store, erected between 1830 and 1832 by Edward Eaton. The next section was a tin shop, erected in the 1840s. It was operated by Alexander Dorrance, who most likely used the store building as his residence. The largest part of the current building was built as a school house, c. 1850. When these three buildings were joined, the school section was raised to be two stories, thus giving the completed structure a classic saltbox profile. The building is described under the heading “Rindge-Dorrance Tin Shop, c. 1840” on p. 15 of the pamphlet Historic Homes of Chaplin Village, by Johanne Philbrick. It is listed in the Chaplin Historic District as “Eaton’s Store” with a date of 1850.