Vergennes Historic Walking Tour 2024 - Manual / Resource - Page 10
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VERGENNES UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
129 Main Street
The Methodist Society in Vergennes met on the Green (City Park), in
homes and in schools from 1800 to 1840 when 30 members organized
and raised money to build a church. There is one account of a Methodist
minister addressing a crowd on the Green from a hay rack with a table
serving as the pulpit. The brick church on Main Street was erected in
1841 at a cost of $7,000. This was the heyday of church construction in
Vergennes, with the Episcopalians and Congregationalists having
recently constructed churches. The Vergennes United Methodist Church
was built in the Greek Revival style and features a side tower with a
double-door entry. An arched stained-glass window with leaded panes
in a flower motif dominates the front facade.
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ST. PAUL’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
6 Park Street
The Episcopal Society of Vergennes was founded in 1811, but it would
take more than 20 years for members to raise the funds to build a
church at the cost of $3,092. The city of Vergennes donated the land
and the Gothic Revival style church was consecrated on January 18,
1835. The small brick building (not pictured) behind the church is the
parish hall, which was originally built as the law office for Frederick E.
Woodbridge in the mid-1830s. Woodbridge served in the U.S. House of
Representatives during the Civil War (1863-1869) and later was elected
mayor of Vergennes. The structure continued as a law office until 1890
when it was acquired by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
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ST. PAUL’S RECTORY
Corner of Park & North Streets
The rectory, a clapboard house behind
the church and parish hall, was
constructed about 1820. Hector H.
Crane, a merchant who operated a
blast furnace on the Otter Creek falls,
was the owner beginning in 1825.
Frederick E. Woodbridge, whose law
office was next door, bought the house
in 1857. Frederick’s grandfather, Enoch,
was a founding member of the
Episcopal Society. Frederick died in
1888 and in 1890, his son, Frederick A.
Woodbridge, sold the building to St.
Paul’s Episcopal Church.
