In a population of over three hundred thousand there was then only a single theatre, and when one of our people was asked: "What do you do for recreation over there ?" he replied, "We go to church." Certainly no one was ever attracted to our own modest little temporary sanctuary by its beauty; for it was unsightly without, though very cheerful within.

Soon after we commenced the building of our present stately edifice the startling report of cannon shook the land from sea to sea.
"And then we saw from Sumter's wall The star-flag of the Union fall, And armed hosts were pressing on The broken lines of Washington." Every other public edifice in this city then in process of erection was brought to a standstill; but we pushed forward the work, like Nehemiah's builders, with a trowel in one hand and a weapon in the other.

To raise funds for the structure, required faith and self-denial, and in this labor of love, woman's five fingers were busy and helpful.

One brave orphan girl in New York gave, from her hard earnings as a public school teacher, a sum so large that the announcement of it from my pulpit aroused great enthusiasm, and turned the scale at the critical moment, and insured the completion of the structure.

Justly may our pulpit vindicate woman's place, and woman's province in the cause of Christ and humanity, for without woman's help that pulpit might never have been erected.
On the 16th of March, 1862, our church edifice was dedicated to the worship of Almighty God, Dr.Asa D.Smith, of Dartmouth College, delivering the dedication sermon, and in the evening, my brilliant and beloved brother, Professor Roswell D.Hitchcock, gave us one of his incisive and inspiring discourses.