History

234 Central Street East Bridgewater, MA 02333 508-378-3786

History

Grace Bible Church is an historic church with a rather interesting past. It was raised on land donated by Samuel Allen, son of the first settler, and incorporated as the First Parish of Bridgewater on Dec. 14, 1723. By 1796, it had been rebuilt bigger for the third and final time on its present location and public worship first took place on January 10 of that year.

It has seen the First and Second Great Awakenings, had Paul Revere in attendance, who, in 1805, cast a bell for the church weighing 931 pounds. It became the First Parish of East Bridgewater a year after the town was incorporated in June 14, 1823. It became the First Parish Unitarian Church in 1860 and remained Unitarian until 1986, when it was bought by a developer with plans to convert the church into condominiums. It was subsequently used as a Hare Krishna community before being bought by Grace Bible Church in October of 1989.

Massive renovations of the interior of the building were carried out before the congregation officially occupied the First Parish Church building on May 4, 1990. The congregation moved into the newly renovated main sanctuary on Easter Sunday 1992. Grace Bible Church received Dr. Robert J. Burrelli Jr. as Pastor in 1994. The church has thus, once again, returned to its original intended use of worship.

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