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An archival December 1932 black-and-white photograph of the Old Pelham Town Hall in winter. A tall two-story white-clapboard meetinghouse with a low pediment over a single central entry, paired sash windows flanking the door and across the second story, a small open-front shed with a hipped roof off to the left, snow covering the foreground and roofs, a small slate field-tag in the lower right reading 'R-366 / Pelham Town Hall / Pelham 12-20-32', and a hand-lettered banner along the bottom edge of the album page reading 'PELHAM TOWN HALL — PELHAM — 12-20-32 — PHOTO·PIKE — #1705'.
Things to See · Historic Site
Pelham Town Hall, December 20, 1932. Photograph by Stuart D. Pike for the Massachusetts Metropolitan District Water Supply Commission, via Massachusetts Archives / Digital Commonwealth / DPLA, source, public domain.

Old Pelham Town Hall

Pelham, Hampshire County

Category
Historic Site
Town
Pelham
County
Hampshire
Admission
Free; exterior viewable any time, interior access by special event or town meeting

The Old Pelham Town Hall stands on the four-corners common at Pelham Hill, on Route 202 (the Daniel Shays Highway), and is the defining building of the small hill town of Pelham. It was put up in 1743 as the town’s first meeting house and served as both Congregational church and civic gathering space until Massachusetts disestablished the church in 1833.

After the religious function ended, the town reworked the building to suit purely civic use. It was moved a short distance in 1839 and reorganized in 1845 into two floors, with the upstairs hall arranged for town meetings. The town claims it as the oldest town hall in continuous use in the United States; the qualifier matters, since the building has been moved and reconfigured along the way. Annual Town Meeting is still held in the upstairs hall every spring.

The Old Town Hall, the adjoining mid-19th-century Congregational church, the Pelham Hill common, and Cherry Hill Cemetery together make up the Pelham Town Hall Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

What to see

  • The meetinghouse exterior. A plain Federal-vernacular two-story clapboard box with a low central pediment and a tower added in 1818, viewable any time from the common.
  • The Pelham Hill common. A small triangular green at the intersection of Amherst Road and the Daniel Shays Highway, with the church next door and Cherry Hill Cemetery a short walk away.
  • Town meeting. Pelham’s Annual Town Meeting is held in the upstairs hall in the spring; visitors can sit in on the open meeting if they want to see the room in active use.
  • Daniel Shays context. Pelham was the home town of Daniel Shays of Shays’ Rebellion (1786–1787); the highway through town carries his name, and several Pelham town meetings in that period were held in this building.

Visiting

The exterior is on public ground and free to visit at any time; there are no posted hours. Interior access is by town meeting, weddings, or community events. The building is run by the town, not as a museum, and is not staffed for drop-in tours. Pelham’s modern town offices are housed in a separate building nearby. The common is a 15–20 minute drive east of Amherst on Route 9 and Route 202.

Sources