Dighton Community Church, Colonial church in Dighton, United States.
Dighton Community Church is a non-denominational church at Lower Four Corners in Dighton, Massachusetts, built from about 1769 and finished in 1798. The main building stood without a tower until 1827, when one was added to house a Revere Bell cast in 1821. The steeple was removed in 2002, rebuilt in Vermont and reinstalled that September.
A group of traders and businessmen formed the Pedo-Baptist Congregational Society in 1769 and chose a site at Lower Four Corners, on the edge of a Pokanoket cornfield. The shell was usable by spring 1770 but stayed unfinished, serving as barracks and sheep shelter during the Revolutionary War. The main building was finished in 1798, the society was incorporated on June 25, 1798, and a tower for the Revere Bell followed in 1827.
On July 13, 1776, a copy of the Declaration of Independence was read aloud in the church, most likely by Ezra Stiles, who became its first minister in 1777. Since the town's 300th anniversary in 2012, the Declaration has again been read aloud each July 4. The church has held an annual Day Lily Show every summer since 1960, though not in 2016.
The church stands at Lower Four Corners in Dighton village, and the cemetery lies on its west side on the site of the old Pokanoket cornfield. The sources record no regular visiting hours or tower access, so check locally before travelling. The Declaration of Independence is read aloud here during the town's July 4 commemorations.
The Revere Bell in the tower is inscribed "Revere Boston 1821" and listed in the Revere Stockbook as Bell Number 254. It was hauled from Canton to Dighton by two oxen in 1821 and hung in a shed in the churchyard until the tower was built for it in 1827. Its yoke and wheel were restored in 2012–2013.
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