Church Destroyed By Fire Gets Surprising Help In Effort To Rebuild

Ruins of the Somers Congregational Church. Photo by John Woike/The Hartford Courant

My colleague Kim Velsey reports a surprising twist in the story of the Somers church that was destroyed by fire on New Year’s day.

A page from the 1842 plans for the Somers Meeting House. Courtesy of the Connecticut State Library archives.

The Somers Congregational Church plans to rebuild the 170-year-old edifice. But to recreate the church facade, steeple and meetinghouse interior, the church is getting unexpected help from the original plans, squirreled away in the Connecticut State Library in Hartford.

A reference librarian stumbled across the plans after hearing of the fire and looking to see what records might exist in the library.

“I saw a separate box that said, “Meeting House Building,’ and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s the building,’ ” Carol Ganz, a reference librarian said.

The document isn’t what you’d call a blueprint, but it does include some exact measurements for the size of posts, beams and rafters. The document also includes many general directives such as constructing a “a suitable plinth (a course of brick or stone) around the entire house.”

Read more here.