The Site

The church is the first and oldest in Vernon. But it began its life in 1811, in the middle of the 6 acre Vernon Centre Green, near where the gazebo is today.

Within 40 years, the congregation had outgrown its walls. So they formed a building committee to build a larger church. They moved the existing building and reassembled a new, larger church in 1839, officially re-opening in 1840. The new building re-used most of the original beams and timber. We believe some of the floor and roof beams are from the 1811 building, with the original bark still intact!

The church’s land, 0.82 acres deeded in 1840 to the congregation by one of Vernon’s founding fathers, Hiram Tuttle, is adjacent to the Northeast corner of the Green. The property is a straightforward rectangle, 244.2′ by 146.52′, at right angles to the Green.

The 1840 Deed

BARGAIN SALE DEED
Dated: December 10, 1840
Ack’d: December 10, 1840
Rec’d: February 9, 1841

Book 98 Deeds, Page 261

[ ] JR. Vernon, County of
Oneida, EUNICE, his wife,
to
THE VERNON CENTRE CONGREGATIONAL
SOCIETY, of the same place

Consideration: $300.00

CONVEYS,
ALL That certain lot of Land, situated in the ‘!’own and County
aforesaid and State of New York it being all of that lot now used dnd occupied by the said Society as a site for the New Congregational Church including the yard in and about the same, with the site for the horse sheds now situated thereon described as follows: Beginning at the north line of the green.or public square in the centre of the Road, leading from the centre of the House of Hiram D. Tuttle, to the Seneca Turnpike Road
and running from thence north four degrees East two chains and twenty two links; thence South eighty six degrees East three chains and seventy
links; thence South four degrees west two chains and twenty two links, to
the the north line of the Green or public square; thence North eighty six degrees west along said north line three chains and seventy links to the
place of beginning. Containing Eighty two one hundredths of an acre of
land.

The 1980 Tax Map, with outline of the Vernon Center Green National Historic Preservation District
Inset from 1874 Map of Vernon, NY and local villages. Note the Presb. Ch. lot, just north of the Town Green, and the Presb. Parsonage at the corner of then Main St. (now Norton Road) and now Churton Road.