Harding Park Meeting House History

Nehemiah Hubbard purchased the property, which bears his name, from the Connecticut Land Company some time after 1795. He subsequently made his first sale of land to Samuel Tylee, a surveyor from Connecticut. Mr. Hubbard also hired Samuel Tylee to be his land agent. This required that Tylee come to this area to find and measure plots of land that could be sold to other settlers. After completing this formidable task, Tylee and his men returned to Connecticut. In 1801, Tylee returned with his wife Anna Sanford Tylee and his mother-in-law to become the first permanent settlers of Hubbard. Soon many others, including friends and relatives, joined him in the new settlement.

By 1804 Tylee, along with other settlers, had organized the First Presbyterian Society. Services were held in a simple log structure built on the north end of town. In 1854 property was purchased from Samuel Tylee's daughters, Eliza Hager and Maria Clingan, on which a new Meeting House could be built. This new and larger structure, built in 1857, was used as the Presbyterian Church until 1959 at which time the congregation relocated to a new building. The old church was sold to the Assembly of God Church, which used it until 1995

In 1995 Hubbard Cares, a local preservation organization, learned of plans for a new Rite Aid to be built at the site. The church which had graced the corner of West Liberty and Hager Street for 139 years, and which provided a direct link to the first settlers of our community could not be lost. Hubbard CARES organized an effort to save the historic structure, and with the financial support of the community, the building was disassembled and stored for later reconstruction.
 

Old Postcard