The Children’s Church

Once a schoolhouse built in 1844 for the children of John Murray Forbes, and located on his estate (“Fredonia”) on Adams Street, it was moved in 1937 adjacent to the First Parish Church Unitarian on Academy Hill and remodeled by William E. Putnam of Putnam and Cox as a church for the children of the First Parish. At the instigation of Dorothy Pomeroy, wife of Reverend Vivian Pomeroy of the First Parish, the former schoolhouse became the “Little Church” where she said “the young folk of the parish will worship in their own church.” Dedicated in 1937, it was embellished with an oak carved altar from Mary Cutter and Helen Robbins, a crewel hanging by Else De Normandie, Sr., a Bible marker by Suzette Coolidge, and an electric organ by the Ayer Family, given in memory of Molly Ayer.