At the corner of East Village and Barn Hill Roads in Monroe is Connecticut’s oldest Methodist church. Built around 1811, the East Village Meeting House is now owned by the Monroe Historical Society. The restored Meeting House is now used for various community events.
East Village Meeting House, Monroe (1811)
My father, Michael Paparella Jr. used to preach there in the 1960’s. I might be wrong, but my understanding is the original building was built in 1796 and redone in 1811. The parsonage was there back then, which had an old sewing machine with a foot pedal inside and rhubarb growing outside next to it. The other building on the property had a room for get-together’s and dinners and Sunday School classrooms. I can remember potlucks held there and speaking with women in their 80’s and 90’s, some old enough to have had fathers who fought in the Civil War and sons in WWI. I wish I could remember the stories they told… The church itself was cold of course, as those old building were. It had an upstairs with a bell tower, and my father used to let me ring the bell on Sunday morning . I remember that building and it’s people fondly.
I went to Sunday school & church there also till it closed. Remember it well. Several generations of my family went there & my great great grandfather Alonzo pulling was a preacher there. My grandmother & her siblings went to east village school house before being moved. Went to Sunday school there along with my siblings & cousins. A lot of fond memories there
Hello Chris, my name is Michael Paparella. Were you attending the church in the late 1960’s ? My father pastored there for a couple of years, and my mother taught Sunday school. Though just a kid in 1968 (I was 12) it may well be we crossed paths, or it may possibly be I was acquainted with some of your family members. I too have fond memories of my time there.