A Brief History of Plympton's Silver Lake Chapel: From Social Spot to Religious Center

The following is taken from the 100th Anniversary booklet of Silver Lake Chapel (September 1891 to September 1991).

Silver Lake Chapel stands on ground that once encompassed Silver Lake Grove. The Grove was developed by the Old Colony Railroad to boost ridership on weekends, drawing many thousands to the 70-acre site every week.

In 1877 the Grove’s excursion boat, Lady of the Lake, exploded, and the following year over 100 passengers on their way to the Grove were killed in a train wreck. These tragedies contributed to a slow decline of the Grove as a social destination.

However, people still met at the dance pavilion--if for a very different purpose. This Grove remnant, Lane’s Hall, became the site of occasional prayer meetings. In the mid 1880’s, a Methodist conference further supported the transformation of the site, as this conference led to the Methodists sending a pastor to Lane's Hall from Bryantville (part of Pembroke, MA), to preach on Sunday afternoons. In 1887, the retired Reverend V. J. Hartshorne (having formerly served the Plympton Congregational Church) became interested in the Grove’s religious awakening. He suggested that the pastor of the Plympton church share the Grove’s preaching duties with his Methodist counterpart from Bryantville.

Money was raised and the dancing pavilion was purchased and soon the transformation from dance hall to church took place. Lemuel Bryant donated the land on which the Chapel stands, but with the provision that if it ever ceased to be used for religious purposes it would revert to his heirs. For more than half of its first one hundred years, the Chapel shared its pastors with Plympton Congregational Church. Reverend Henry Belcher arrived in 1984 and still serves as pastor of the Silver Lake Chapel.

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