The Micah House and Chapel at the Thomas Hale Homestead

It’s exciting that First Church is now using this wonderful addition to our campus. The Micah House and Chapel has been used for numerous church activities, including meetings, youth fellowship, Advent Messy Church and Jonathan Russell’s bee presentation. It was also on the Glastonbury Historical Society’s Home for the Holidays House Tour, as a first step toward sharing the Chapel with the broader community.

One of the main project goals was to ensure that as much of the old Hale House as possible could be reused in the transformation to our new Micah House and Chapel. This started from the very bottom of the old homestead. The original fieldstone and brick foundation was no longer structurally sound and needed to be removed and reconstructed.  As a result, the original foundation, consisting of over 25 tons of fieldstone and thousands of old bricks, needed to be removed and set aside. Volunteers sorted and cleaned the bricks and stacked the foundation stone on pallets. The cleaned bricks were reused to provide a brick veneer face on the new foundation. The beautiful stone retaining wall and two sitting walls in the patio are all constructed from the Hale House foundation stone.

In the winter and spring of 2017, volunteers spent countless hours meticulously removing all the trim, parlor paneling and doors from the rooms on the first and second floors. Every piece was labeled and eventually stored in the big red trailer in the back of the property. All this material was returned to the Micah House and Chapel by another group of volunteers. 

The exceptional craftsmen working on this project have recreated the first floor parlors and foyer using all the original trim, paneling and doors. In some rooms, they used their talents to replicate the Hale House trim for new doorways and openings. These are some of the examples of how the Building Committee has tried very hard to salvage materials from the Hale House homestead to find a home in the new Micah House.

Take a moment to look outside when you are visiting church or attending Sunday worship services. Thank you to everyone in the First Church community who contributed and who worked tirelessly to make this vision into an amazing reality.​

Our beloved faith community’s gift and vision will serve First Church today and for future generations!!