Second Meeting House, Bethel (1842)

At 40 Main Street in Bethel is a building known as the Second Meeting House. It was built in 1842 and was indeed the second meeting house to be erected by the First Congregational Church of Bethel. The first meeting house, built in 1760, had burned down. In 1865, a strong wind blew down the second meeting house’s steeple, which fell through the roof of the building. As related in James Montgomery Bailey’s History of Danbury (1896): “In the spring of 1865, during a gale, the house was injured by the falling of the spire, and having been repaired, was sold to the town and moved ten rods west of its former site.” In 1866, the church erected its third and current meeting house, located at 46 Main Street, where the first meeting house had once stood. After being sold to the town, the Second Meeting House served as Town Hall until 1939. Today, the building is the headquarters of the Bethel Historical Society, which rents out the hall. It is also the meeting place of Bethel VFW Post 935.