1. "Central Congregational Church"
Posted by edisto on Jun-18th-02 at 2:06 PM

Vol. I of "Victorian Vistas" has an item dated December 6, 1875, about the new Central Church then nearing completion.  The land for the church cost in excess of $56,000, and construction costs were nearly $127,000.  (A lot of money in those days!) The edifice was designed to seat 1,200 people in its pews and an additional 600 in folding chairs.  On December 16, a public auction was held for pew space.  The highest bidder was allowed to select any pew he/she wished.  A Dr. Durfee bid $400 and selected a choice pew for which the rental was $400 per year.  Mrs. Col. Borden bid $410 for second choice.  The rental on her pew was $800 per year.  It seems the bid was to pay for choice of pew only, and the annual rent was on top of that.  After these two bids, the amounts fell off precipitously, but pews on the "broad aisle" rented for $100 each.  Some less choice ones had rentals as low as $15, and some individual seats were let at $5.00.  A number of Bordens are mentioned in the item, but no members of Andrew's immediate family.  I wonder what kind of rent Lizzie paid after she joined. These folks clearly took their religion seriously.  The last sentence in the article is : "The rapid renting of the pews shows that the people worshipping there intend to keep doing good..."

I'm sorry, but I must question those prices.

$56,000 for land? How many acres is that?
$127,000 seems like an awful lot of money for a building. What did Andy spend on his 3-story office building?

AR Brown tells us that a factory worker earned $10 a week (for an 80-hour week). Bread 5 cents a loaf (2-3 pounds?).

Sorry...I have no information about the cost of the Central Congregational Church, other than what appears in this article.  I doubt, however, that it was made up out of whole cloth.  Alas, Silvia isn't specific about what newspapers he used for research, although I'm sure it would be possible to check the archives of the various papers then operating in Fall River and find out.  I think people back then thought more about the repose of their immortal souls than we do now.  I'm not sure whether these pew rents covered their contributions to the church, or whether they were expected to give additional monies.  I think the prices sound very high too.  The property on which the church was built is described in "rods," which can be either a measure of length or a measure of area. I'm not accustomed to that measure and don't know which is meant.  It was the former site of a large mansion with many outbuildings, so it would have been a huge piece of ground in the heart of a bustling town.  The building, of course, is still there and is now used as a culinary institute and restaurant.  At least that was true the last thing I heard.