Courtesy Concord Free Public Library
People of Concord gathered to examine the ruins of the First Parish meetinghouse after a fire destroyed it on April 12, 1900.
FAITH AND FIRE
Stories of Concord’s First Parish
I
BY VICTOR CURRAN
It was April 1900, and the First Parish in Concord was putting the finishing touches on a splendid renovation of its historic meetinghouse on Lexington Road. No expense had been spared, for in a few days the parish would celebrate Easter Sunday, and less than a week later, the town would gather in its pews to honor the 125th anniversary of the minutemen’s victory at the North Bridge. As the sun set on Wednesday, April 11, carpenters and electricians packed up their tools, and painters stowed their cleaning rags 34
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in a closet. They headed home, pleased with their work. Around 2:30 on Thursday morning, a night watchman named Patrick Varney was patrolling the silent streets when he spotted flames in the meetinghouse. He rushed to the nearest fire-alarm box—a brand-new system getting its first use—and pulled the handle. Willard Farrar, the sexton of the nearby Trinitarian Congregational Church, heard the commotion and sprinted toward the burning meetinghouse. He forced his way in through a locked door, grabbed the bell rope, and
with all his might he rang the First Parish bell, which was considerably louder than the town’s new fire alarm. Farrar fearlessly rang the bell until 3:30, when the steeple itself was engulfed in flames, and he escaped moments before the blazing structure collapsed.1 The next day, the governing board of the First Parish received a letter from their counterparts at the Trinitarian church. “We tender to you for your use our meeting house, as long as you desire… [the] facilities of the building are freely at your disposal.”2
