Attic - The Henry Whitfield State Museum

First Clock Tower (1729)

Under the Reverend Henry Whitfield, the Puritan settlers of Guilford founded the church now known as the First Congregational Church. These settlers constructed their first meeting house, a stone building that stood on the green, in 1643.
To accommodate the growing congregation, a new, larger building was constructed in 1713. The church bought a bell in 1725 and shortly after added a steeple. Ebenezer Parmelee, a shipwright who lived in Guilford's Hyland House (now a museum), made and donated this clock. The church became, it is said, the first in Connecticut with a steeple, bell, and clock.

In 1829 the church was replaced by the one still standing at the north end of the green, and the clock was moved to the new structure. The clock was removed in 1893, after 167 years of service, to make way for an electric version.

Parmelee's tower clock, now the oldest in New England, has only one hand. Two-handed clocks became common about 1680, but even in 1726 one-handed clocks were considered acceptable, since people had little need to know the time to the minute. The clockwork is gravity powered by two boxes of rocks. The face, pendulum, and hand may be late-19th century replacements.