KEEPING THE FAITH
This historic church has all but lost its congregation, but community members hope it can somehow still survive
BURRILLVILLE – Betty Mencucci runs her hand along the polished wood of a white table clothed altar inside the drafty First Universalist Church in Harrisville, a 131-year-old Protestant house of worship and spiritual oasis for three generations of her family.
A glint of sunlight pierces a stained glass window in the nearby church vestry where a thick, knotty rope hangs down from the silent bell tower.
Mencucci’s mother, Mable (Wheeler) Hopkins, was a parishioner here, and so were her grandparents, Charles and Eliza Wheeler. The church was also the place where Mencucci married her husband, Carlo, in 1977.
Fifty years ago, the circa 1886 church located on Main Street in the heart of Harrisville village was a thriving parish with weekly worship services, church bazaars and ham and bean suppers. Parishioners crowded the pews on Easter
and for Christmas Eve candlelight services where the church pipe organ and singing of hymns filled the air.
These days, the church is mostly dark and empty. The doors are kept locked and not much happens except on occasional baptism or marriage ceremony. Other than an annual Easter service, there are no more weekly worship services because the congregation, which at its peak numbered more than 100 parishioners, is now down to about six.
And you can’t maintain a church with only six parishioners.
“I think the church membership started dropping off in the 80’s,” says Mencucci. “The old members were dying off and we weren’t getting any new members.”
Sister kept church going
The venerable old church would likely have been shuttered years ago were it not for Mencucci’s sister, Kathy Hopkins. Alay preacher who taught Sunday school there, Hopkins loved the church and became its official caretaker. She helped pay the heating bills and made sure the building didn’t suffer from neglect.
With the help of her brother, Frank Hopkins, who stopped by every week to reset the steeple clock, the First Universalist Church limped along down and out, but still alive.
When Hopkins died last year after a long battle with cancer, her memorial service was held in the very church she loved. Her death at the age of 60 left a huge void in her community and the future of the church uncertain.
“When my sister died in June we didn’t know what to do,” says Betty. “The church’s savings account had long been depleted and there just wasn’t any money left to maintain the building.”
Mencucci said she sought advice from Preserve Rhode Island, a statewide historic preservation organization, which suggested converting the church into condominiums. That advice went against the better judgment of Mencucci who is also president of the Burrillville Historical & Preservation Society.
“We quickly said no to that idea because we want it to stay a church,” says Mencucci. “This is also a building with significant historical value.”
The church was built in 1886 thanks to the efforts of Albert Sweet, a farmer and landowner who wanted to provide a formal place of worship for the town’s Universalists. Sweet spearheaded a fundraising campaign and was able to get $1,000 from Albert Sayles, a Pascoag mill owner.
On Dec. 12, 1886, Rev. Massena Goodrich of Central Falls conducted the first service.
The Victorian style church underwent a dramatic transformation in the 1930s at the request of Austin T. Levy, a textile industrialist, who provided housing for some of his workers and, in 1933, established the Burrillville Town Buildings Project, which donated several buildings to the town. The church closed for renovations on Sept. 10, 1933 and reopened on Jan. 14, 1934.
“Levy wanted the church to have a more colonial look so it would fit in with the surrounding buildings in the village,” Mencucci says.
While saving and preserving a historic building is one thing; trying to come up with the money to make repairs and pay the heating and elec- tric bills every month is something else.
“It’s in good shape now, but if we don’t keep up with the maintenance on a regular basis, the building will begin to suffer,” says Mencucci whose goal is to save the church as a historical museum and multi-use facility as well as an occasional place of worship (an Easter Sunday service will be held next Sunday and conducted by Rev. David Johnson of Providence).
Mencucci’s brother Frank helped organize a fundraiser last September at Addieville East Farm in Mapleville, which raised $4,000 to pay for this past winter’s heating oil. To keep the cost of heating oil down, Mencucci keeps the thermostat between 40 and 45 degrees, just enough to keep the pipes from freezing and the plaster from cracking.
Fundrasier tomorrow
Menccuci says more money is needed to keep the historic church open and that more fundraisers are planned, including a Palm Sunday event tomorrow called “Songs of the Resurrection,” which will feature organist, composer and chorale director John C. Black accompanied by soprano Olivia Vicente, a frequent performer of choral music around southern New England.
The 6:15 p.m. event will feature a hymn sing, organ concert, historical display and refreshments. There will be a free will offering with all proceeds going to the preservation and upkeep of the church. Seating is limited and reservations can be made by calling Mencucci at 568-8449 or 500-0433 or Thomas Tatro at 568-4141.
The fundraiser was the idea of Tatro, a Burrillville resident, who is friends with Black, director of Music and Choirs at Greenwood Community Church, the largest Presbyterian Church in Rhode Island.
“Tom came to a few of our events and expressed an interest in helping so he’s the one who came up with the event we’re having on Sunday,” says Mencucci.
The Burrillville Historical & Preservation Society is also planning to hold its May 23 meeting at the church, which will also be the central meeting point of the Society’s upcoming walking tour of Harrisville slated May 27.
“We’re going to try and keep this church going for as long as we can,” says Mencucci, who appears to have taken over her sister Kathy’s role as the church’s official caretaker.
“It’s a way for me to honor my sister’s memory,” she says.