History of the Washington Church
From the Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, Volume 10, page 1575, 1976. Review and Herald Publishing Association. Used with permission.
WASHINGTON, NEW HAMPSHIRE, CHURCH. In the township of Washington, about three miles from the village of Washington Center, stands a rural church building, a white wooden structure (for description, see Church Buildings), that is often referred to as "the first SDA church."
More precisely, it is the church in which originated the first group of Sabbatarian Adventists. In 1844, apparently, in this church of the Christian Brethren, a traveling Methodist minister and a number of the lay members, who were already Adventists (Millerites), began to keep the seventh day and thus became, in that limited sense, Seventh-day Adventists.
In 1851 and on they were visited by the Whites and others. In 1862 they became an organized SDA church, but only later acquired possession, and eventually ownership, of the church building.
The Washington, New Hampshire, church was not the first organized SDA church, nor was the building the first SDA house of worship; for by 1862 there were other SDA churches already fully organized, and as early as the autumn of 1855 there was an SDA church building in Buck's Bridge, New York, and one other built or under construction in Battle Creek, Michigan (Review and Herald, 61:60 footnote, Jan. 22, 1884; 78:765, Nov. 26, 1901).
However, the Washington church may be considered the birthplace of the first Sabbath keeping Adventist congregation. James White described it as "the place where Sabbath keeping was first practiced among Adventists" (ibid., 31:104, Jan. 28, 1868).
Accounts are contradictory as to the number of the Sabbath keepers and the time when they began to observe the day, though the principal facts are clear. For the differing views on these points, see A. W. Spalding, Origin and History of Seventh-day Adventists, volume 1, pages 397-400, on which are notes to pages 115-121. These notes summarize the principal sources on the Washington church, apparently derived largely from the research of D. E. Kobinson. See also L. E. Froom, Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, volume 4, pages 945-953.
From the Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, Volume 10, page 295, 1976. Review and Herald Publishing Association. Used with permission.
CHURCH BUILDINGS
Throughout their history SDA's have erected various types of church buildings. The first church in which a group of Adventists became Sabbath keepers, in 1844, was one erected in 1842 or 1843 by the Christian Brethren of Washington, New Hampshire. (A group of 15 organized the SDA church there in 1862, but it was many years before the SDA's had full ownership of the building.)
This church is a simple rectangular frame building 30 by 40 feet, with clapboard exterior and a plain gable roof. There are two separate entrance doors at the front, leading into a small vestibule, from which two more doors open into the church auditorium, and a narrow stairway leads up to a small balcony. The interior walls are plastered, and there is a series of plain glass windows on two sides, one of which overlooks the church cemetery about 75 feet away. The church seats about 120.
History Notes
Etching at the top of the page is from "Life Sketches" by Ellen G. White, page 182, 1943.
Read the newest, full entry in the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, published April 15, 2024, about the history of the Washington Church.