The First Congregational Church
Champaign Historic Site
The First Congregational Church, built in 1855-56, was popularly known as the “Goose Pond” Church, because the site was once a water-filled area, home to flocks of wild geese and ducks. The church became a meeting center for numerous groups aspiring to improve life in the booming “New Town” then rising up along the tracks of the recently completed Illinois Central Railroad.
The congregation and its minister were strongly opposed to American slavery, and worked openly and earnestly to eliminate it during the ante-bellum period. They accepted with pleasure being hailed as the “Abolitionist” Church. Among many notable anti-slavery orators who spoke within the walls of the Goose Pond Church were Abraham Lincoln and Owen Lovejoy, brother of the martyred journalist Elijah P. Lovejoy.
Dramatic testimony of Goose Pond Congregation’s openness to those who were dedicated to the eradication of slavery came when a community-wide memorial service was held at the church on December 11, 1859, in honor of the hanged abolitionist and insurrectionist John Brown, of the Harper’s Ferry incident.
The growth of the congregation prompted a move to a larger sanctuary in 1866. The Goose Pond Church was sold to the Baptists, who later sold it to the German Catholics. The building was moved from this site to 23 South Locust Street and became St. John’s German Catholic Church.
Marker is at the intersection of 1st Street and East Park Street, on the left when traveling north on 1st Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
