Central Church (Worcester, Mass.)

The Central Church in Worcester, Mass., was formed in 1820 as the result of the dissatisfaction of Daniel Waldo (1763-1845) and several others over the choice of a minister at the Old South Church in Worcester. The parish was organized in 1822 and legally incorporated in 1825. Its first minister, Loammi Hoadley (1790-1883), was called in 1823. The Church was officially known as the Calvinist Church and Society, but was commonly called the Central Church. The name was legally changed to Central Church in 1879.

The first meeting house was erected in 1823, wholly at the expense of Daniel Waldo. A new one was built in 1885. The original house, the land on which it stood and a sum of working capital were made over by Waldo to the executive body of the parish, the Board of Trustees of the Parochial Funds, in an agreement which left Waldo and his sisters special privileges of decision and veto. In 1883 the Board was dissolved and its powers merged with those of the Central Society. In 1919 the Society itself was abolished with the legal incorporation of the Church. A so-called Standing Committee assumed some of the administrative duties of the original Board of Trustees. In November 1982 the Central Church and Chestnut Street Church merged as the United Church of Christ in Worcester.

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