The bronze plaque marking the location of the Footville/Lakeside Advent Chapel was placed just east of Thomas Waugh’s driveway [#82 Lakeside Rd.] on the north side of Rt. 109 and west of the Lakeside Post Office [now #46 Lakeside Rd.] close to the site of the old Baptist Church.

The Chapel was started when a group of Morris residents met Jan. 22, 1868 to consider organizing themselves as a separate parish. Joseph Curtis was elected Elder and Luman Watrous as Deacon, both from religious families. Joseph David Curtis was a miller by trade and had a license to preach. He had married Ellen Porter who died bearing their child and then he married her sister Nancy Porter. Curtis went on to be ordained at the Advent Conference and was the only minister until 1915.

The Chapel was built in 1871 and was about the same size (26’ x 36’) as the first church built in South Farms in 1764. The Chapel was plain with no steeple and it had a stove so that it could be used year around. At the start they had 11 members and in 1874 they added a horse shed in back so that members could drive to Sunday meetings, thereby attracting new members.

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The Chapel was called Footville Chapel until 1902, when the name Footville had to be changed to Lakeside in order to get a Post Office. After Curtis died, some chapel members took turns giving the sermons. In 1921, when Hubert Munroe held services, he referred to the church as the Lakeside Chapel. Gradually the members died off or moved away and the Chapel was used only for funeral services until the floor became unsound. By the 1960s, in very dilapidated condition, the building was destroyed.

 

Editor’s notes:  In 1959 the Morris Centennial Committee arranged for the placement of plaques mounted on stone monuments to mark historic sites for buildings no longer in existence.

   For more information about the history of the Advent Chapel, refer to pages 83 & 84 in Laura Stoddard Weik’s book  - “One Hundred Years: History of Morris Connecticut 1859-1959.” 

  Additionally, in The Morris Historical Society’s Old Town Hall Museum there are a few objects from the Advent Chapel. One of the items is a wooden pew/bench that is described, along with a history of the Chapel, in the Museum Accession records.

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Excerpt from the Museum Accession book about the Advent Chapel pew:

“Description: Approximately 11 feet long; 33 ¾ inches high, 15 inches deep. 

History and Use: The land for the Second Advent Chapel was bought from Grace Waugh in 1871. Land was 80 feet in depth with a width of 60 feet. This was sold for $35 with the condition that if it was no longer used for purposes of worship, the title should revert to Grace Waugh, or her heirs. 

   The first plan was to use the new Town Hall [now the Historical Society’s museum on South Street (Rt. 61)] built in 1861 as a model. Then it was decided to build without a steeple, “plain, more like ourselves.” The wood used was mostly chestnut. At that time Nelson Edmonds owned the Throop mill and some wood was sawed free as his share. Later the horse sheds were added. The buildings were not painted white as it was felt that this would stain. 

   The original church members died or moved away and the chapel, for a time, was used only for funerals. Then there was a plan for use as an American Legion Hall and a Post Office Building. Much volunteer labor was done till winter stopped the work. This was never continued and the building was in worse shape than before. It finally blew down. Some of the wood was salvaged for the work of taking it down. Some was stolen. 

   The bench was scraped and repaired by Howard Stoddard before it was donated it to the Morris Historical Society.”