There was in colonial days, and for many years after the Revolution, an unwillingness to call meeting-houses churches. The Presbyterians were the first to adopt a custom which is now general in the U.S.
1770. Sunday morning the Rev. Mr. Whitefield [preached] at Christ’s Church; and this evening [May 17] he preaches at the Presbyterian Church.—Mass. Gazette, May 28.
1770. Philadelphia, June 7. The Rev. Mr. Whitefield preached at the Archstreet Presbyterian Church on Friday night last.—Id., June 18.
1774. A sermon, preached at the Presbyterian Church in Boston, advertised for sale.—Id., Feb. 14.
1774. They arrived at the English Presbyterian Church [in Albany, N.Y.,] when the congregation were going in to the forenoon service.—Id., Feb. 14.
1790. Noah Webster comments on the extended use of this word: noting that the Presbyterians in “Newyork” and Baltimore have already adopted it.—Mass. Spy, Oct. 7.
1821. [In Hartford, Conn., are] four Churches; two Presbyterian, one Episcopal, and one Baptist.—T. Dwight, ‘Travels,’ i. 234.
1821. The new brick Methodist Church in New-Haven was blown entirely down.—Mass. Spy, Sept. 12. (But in an account of the same tempest the Connecticut Mirror mentions the destruction of “the new Methodist Meeting-house” in New-haven.)
1823. A marriage in the “second Methodist chapel” is noticed in the Nantucket Inquirer, Oct. 28.
1825. The “church,” as he called it, repeatedly, on their way—to the great annoyance of his companion, was a homely piece of architecture; painted red; with white window frames; black roof; and large doors, of a brimstone colour. It was a school-house, on six days of the week, and a meeting-house, on the seventh.—John Neal, ‘Brother Jonathan,’ i. 124.
1830. “The editor of the Christian Watchman,” says the Vermont Chronicle, “dislikes the practice of calling meeting-houses churches.” We never call them so. Let him join us, in defiance of fashion.—Mass. Spy, Oct. 20.
