As a way of giving back, the congregation at a historic church in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, gave the public a golden chance to pose with a piece of history this week.
By a wide margin in May, residents at a town meeting approved $435,000 in community preservation funding to help renovate the First Church of Christ off Route 5 and Longmeadow Street.
As Pastor Doug Bixby tells WAMC, the structure by the town green is steeped in history – and has also been in need of repairs, including its steeple, bell tower and slate roof.
Now, with scaffolding covering its front and work well underway, he and other members of the church put together a way to say “thanks” to the community – a special photo-op with a piece of history that’s rarely grounded – the church’s golden rooster.
“That rooster sits on top of our steeple and has been there since the 1700s and it has only been down four times since then - that we know of - and this is our thank you to the community for their support of our project,” Rev. Bixby says.
Imported from England around 1795, the steeple ornament that stands at least three-and-a-half feet tall normally figures prominently both on the church as well as the upper-right corner of the town seal.
It’s not uncommon to see a rooster atop a Christian church - a reference to Christ telling his apostle Peter during the Last Supper that, “before the rooster crows," his follower would deny him three times.
Bixby calls it a symbol of humility – but also a piece of history the town’s come to enjoy, whether it’s atop the church or down for a selfie.
“It calls us to be responsible and faithful to each other … but it also is fun and funny and it brings a smile to people's faces and it's beloved in our community,” he explains. “… we see the rooster as a member of our community, not just our church. We're really glad people can come and enjoy it and smile while they're getting their picture taken with it.”
On Wednesday and Thursday, the rooster sat in Bailey Hall for a photo-op. The rooster itself was last down in 1996 for previous repair work, just as it was in 1945. Before that, church officials say the “great gale of 1821” blew it down.
Descended from one of Longmeadow’s founding families, Douglas Burt tells WAMC the rooster has also survived potshots over the years.
“My grandfather and his oldest son used to hunt birds out where the high school is now and they used to come home and, occasionally, they used to empty their weapons at the rooster that was on top,” the 12th generation Burt says. “… you can even see some of the dents still in the rooster. They did hit it once in a while.”
Marieke Burt tells WAMC for the longest time, she and other parishioners have been trying to get a new roof on the church. With funding in tow, offering up a photo-op with the iconic bird felt like a way of giving back.
“I’ve jumped through a lot of hoops, did a lot of thinking about how we're going to get this done and now, in the end, we have to thank the town of Longmeadow,” she said. “We wanted to put slate back on the roof, because that was, historically, what was on it, and we want to preserve the history…”
As Bixby explains, the church has deep roots in the community – dating back to Longmeadow’s founding as it broke off with Springfield in the 1700s.
Serving as a meetinghouse, the first iteration of the church would go up in 1716 before being torn down some 50 years later in favor of a bigger structure.
Stanley Zdonick, the church’s building and technology manager, says the building would go up in 1767, but would later be moved off the town green in the early 1800s to where it sits now.
It’s not hard to see the building’s long history everywhere, he says.
“it's a post-and-beam structure and when you go up to the attic, you can actually see one beam that was salvaged from a sailing ship - it's just interesting little bits like that,” he says. “And then we have things like gas for the gas lighting from back in those days - those fixtures are still in a couple of walls, but we don't use them, obviously.”
For now, visiting hours for the rooster are closed. Photos of community members posing with the big bird can be found on the church’s Facebook page.
Bixby estimates current work on the church should be done by August.
