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Parcel 6
ORANGE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH PARSONAGE
602 Orange Center Road

During the 1940s it became apparent that the parsonage of the Congregational Church then in use at the corner of Meetinghouse Lane, west of the Green, had deteriorated beyond restoring. The church voted to build a new home for its pastor on the same lot which had been deeded to the church with the stipulation that if it was not used for the "support of the gospel" it should revert to the American Board of Foreign Missions.

The new parsonage, designed by Henry Kelly in 1953 for continuity of design with the church, was placed south and to the rear of the old house which was then torn down. The house is a large square colonial with central front door, symmetrically placed windows and generous roof. The attached garage and breezeway brings the height of the structure to earth, and gives the effect of old-time attached sheds.

GRANTOR	GRANTEE	DATE	DEED LOC.	VOL.	PAGE
??	John Bryan	6/18/1815
John Bryan	Richard Bryan *	9/16/1816	MFD.	27	23
Richard Bryan	Bankrupt-Town of Or.	9/30/1839
	N. Merwin Tr. Two 1/4 acre pieces - one on each side of highway (Meetinghouse Lane) at west side of Green. with bldgs.		WH.	5	17
Town of Orange	Sam Johnson at auction	10/4/1839 - store and land
Town of Orange	Sam Johnson 32 1/2 rds.	10/16/1841	WH.	4	428
	*containing 1 rood (1/4 acre) more or less.
Town of Orange	Sam Johnson 32 1/2 rds. Hway.	1/3/1842	(Road discontinued Selectmen's Minutes)
Sam Johnson	N.M.Eccl.Soc.	/1841	WH
From the above it is evident that the Parsonage land evolved from the old discontinued Meetinghouse Road and Richard Bryan's lost quarter acre.

An actual check of deeds was not done on the Parsonage property but from references to it in adjacent property deeds and in Mary Woodruff's history and the Sesqui-History by the Mabrys it seems the first parsonage was built in 1841 on the land where the present Parsonage is located. This was the plot mentioned in Miss Woodruff's History (in error on the "east" side)...."on the west side of the Green, Jon Bryan kept a small store. However, in 1838, Richard Bryan lost this property through bankruptcy, and it was sold at auction to Samuel Johnson. In 1841, Mr. Johnson sold the property to the North Milford Ecclesiastical Society on which land the parsonage was built." In deeds describing the Coppola land, these references are made: 1.)...(in 1845) "bounded east on Parsonage Association" and in 1865...."east by the Parsonage Place so called."