Part 2

 Have all the real estate transactions been in Vermont? The answer may surprise you…

The Congregational Church of Middlebury (UCC) has been involved in several land and fiscal transactions. This article highlights the potential value to the church of each of seven transactions (four parcels in Part 1, and three parcels in Part 2).

The parcels being examined are The Henshaw House, The Monroe House, The Hayward Block, Lazarus Property, Charter House, Cobble House, and The Battell Memorial Chapel.

Refreshing the four transactions in Part 1:

Two parsonages were purchased as homes for the pastors; each was sold after a few years. This additional land was part of the church’s property for only a short period of time. The Hayward Block on College Street was bequeathed to the church by Mrs. Alice Hayward Woodcock in 1966. It was not useful for church purposes, so after negotiation, it was sold to Middlebury College for $25,000. There was no land transferred to the church. The Cobble House provided a permanent long-term parcel to the church. The land from the Cobble House purchase provided ample space for additional church offices, classrooms, and meeting rooms for a new north wing to the church.

Part 2 of this article examines three more real estate transactions: Charter House, Lazarus property, and the Battell Memorial Chapel.

Charter House — 27 North Pleasant Street; owned from 1970 to current. A Warranty Deed was signed on 23 Nov 1970, Book 67 /483. Grantor, The Alumni Corporation of Beta Nu Chapter of Theta Chi; Grantee, The Congregational Church of Middlebury, Inc. The cost of the purchase was $45,000. Charter House was bought with the clear purpose and intent that it would have a multi-fold use. It would serve the needs of space for worship, church offices, church group meetings, education of the youth, as well as the needs of the community.

Lazarus property — 4 Seymour Street; owned from 1959 to current. In 1959 it was evident that a need existed for more space, especially for the church school; the Lazarus property was purchased from Harry R. Lazarus for $16,500. A careful consideration led to the final consensus that renovation of the buildings was impractical, and all buildings were razed. The land was cleared, graded, and adapted for use as a church parking lot. A warranty deed states “a parcel of land with buildings thereon situate on the easterly side of Seymour Street in the Village of Middlebury and bounded northerly by lands of Elizabeth Wimett and J. W. Murdock and wife, easterly by lands of the said Murdocks, southerly by said lands of the Religious Congregational Society and westerly by said Seymour Street.”

In 1979, the church responded to the shortage of parking places in town. Town officials proposed to develop our Seymour Street parking lot, to provide at least twelve parking spaces for town use, and to use for fifteen years at one dollar a year, providing all maintenance and snow removal. The lot would be reserved for church folks at worship and other special meetings. The proposal was approved October 14, 1979. The town spent about $6,000 on retaining walls, drainage, and paving.

Battell Memorial Chapel: Bequest of $20,000.

The details of this bequest are based on two paragraphs in the book on the history of the church (1990) by Stephen A. Freeman and the printed minutes of a three-way conversation between Phelps N. Swett, Richard Hubbard, and Stephen A. Freeman in 1972. Much of the following information on the chapel or $20,000 is taken as is from this three way conversation:

Because of the long association (PNS) with the Congregational Church and your financial responsibilities as Fiscal Agent and being very much interested in the church over a period of years, you have a tremendous amount of knowledge that we feel is important and should be recorded and kept on record as a permanent listing of whatever events have occurred in which you have knowledge and very few others, if any, have knowledge. [MWC has only found this particular conversation, no others]

The Religious Society met on July 5, 1902, and was informed by John W. Stewart, that his late wife, Emma Battell Stewart, had left to her trustees, the monies for the erection of a chapel. Phelps N. Swett was asked to relate his knowledge, background, and history of the monies that were left by Philip Battell to the church in 1928. The Stewart bequest had to do with the construction of a chapel which was not ultimately built. It also involved some negotiation between the church and the Swift and the Stewart families in connection with the Community House.

The money came from Mrs. Swift’s mother, Joseph Battell’s sister (died March 19, 1900). The $20,000 was connected with her estate. The church at that time didn’t feel that they cared to accept a gift under the restrictions that guided the use of the bequest and, when I (Phelps) came here, that issue was taken up at the annual meeting and someone got up and asked about the $20,000 and it was hush, hush, we mustn’t bring it up. It was a sore point. I (Phelps) know Professor Wright was one who wanted to soft-pedal it and so that went on over the years. The restrictions were such that this new chapel that was to be built so that the use would be entirely religious and it could not be used for anything having to do with food or meetings that were not 100% religious -–so the church did not accept it.

The fruitless discussion continued over the years, and in 1927 the church and the Stewarts came to an agreement. They said they would turn over to the church $20,000 and no interest since 1924. The church was to accept just $20,000 and in return the church would give up a possible future interest that they might have in what is now called the Community House. So we went ahead on that basis and, as I recall it, the restriction was that Stewart/Battell interests were to be permanent in the Community House but it was to go to the church eventually if there was no one in the Stewart line who was interested in the Community House building. Should there be no one in the Stewart family who cared enough to continue it, it would revert to the church. Now if the church gave up that interest and Mrs. Swift was, of course, interested in that because she wanted to turn the building over to what is now the Community House. That is how the Community House started, and Judge Russell and Mrs. Swift and I worked on that and brought out the Articles of Association or whatever and the house was started. The $20,000 was turned over to the church. John Fletcher was the Treasurer of the church and he was interested, of course, in what we had to invest, and along in the late 1920s, he invested this $20,000 for the church: $8,000–$9,000 in a real estate mortgage in Brooklyn (1417 East 59th Street); $8,500 in a second real estate mortgage in Brooklyn (1311 Union Street); and $2,500 into the savings account at the National Bank.

These mortgages were insured. At that time, the insurance companies were strong and you could take 6% on a land mortgage and keep it all, or you could accept 5½%, and that ½% would guarantee the loan. But the Depression in 1930 came on, and so the church got very little income. The bottom dropped out, the insurance companies went broke, and the mortgages were not paying their interest. With James Gifford (New Haven) in charge of the trust account – his firm had a real estate man on their board – he took over and the church foreclosed and got the two properties by foreclosures; the cost of the foreclosure took practically all of the $2,500 we had in the National Bank at that time. We ended up with two properties in Brooklyn. He, through his firm, did all the necessary handling of the interest of the church with these properties. The names of the tenants were completely unfamiliar to the church. We couldn’t sell the properties because it was the early 1930s, so he would send a report at the end of the year and the church would get their share. I was very anxious that the funds be built back. We had an appraisal of the properties which was $10,000. If you could get it, $20,000 would be the total but you couldn’t get it. There was no sale of properties at that time. As the money came in, I turned part of it over.

I became Fiscal Agent around 1951 in January and we were getting reports from Mr. Gifford’s firm, and I would turn over a certain percentage to build the fund back again. We kept trying to sell the properties and finally l did sell one property at bargain prices. We got cash and I put that money into F Bonds. The reasons I bought was because there was no interest coming in on them. You could buy them for $740 per $1,000 and they built up and I was anxious to build them up so we would have a fund of $20,000 real dollars so people in the future wouldn’t say, “There was a fund of $20,000 – where is it?” I was anxious that it be built up to assure people in the future that any funds they left would be carefully guarded and if there were losses somebody would in some way or another get those back.

In summary, the seven transactions can be briefly stated as follows:

Henshaw House – Lot to serve as manse for pastors, and then sold

Monroe House – Lot to serve as manse for pastors, and then sold

Charter House – Lot bought and kept for church use

Cobble House – Lot bought and used as land for new building

Battell Memorial Chapel – Chapel not erected, monies unrestricted funds to church

Hayward Block – Lot bequeathed to church, then sold to the college

Lazarus Property – Lot bought for church uses, converted to parking lot

Malcolm W. Chase

Historian