The early history of the First Parish Church of Duxbury, Massachusetts is central to the overall history of Duxbury. A succession of four buildings, our present one being the last, constitute the framework.

By 1632, a group led by Elder William Brewster, had left their small farms at Plymouth for the larger lots along Massachusetts Bay. This developing congregation was to become First Parish in Duxbury, the second religious body of the Plymouth Colony.

In the early days of this Duxbury settlement, the center of the community was in The Nook, a spring fed fertile area between Captain's Hill and Bay Road, directly accessible by boat from Plymouth. Meetings probably were held in houses, primitive buildings similar to those seen today at Plimoth Plantation.

The requirements that the town's proprietors had to fulfill before receiving title from the colonial authorities were to attract a minimum number of settlers, hire a minister and erect a meeting house within a specified number of years. Such "parishes" as they were called, were also required to have a school teacher, often the minister, and sometimes a public burying ground.

The Reverend Ralph Partridge was the first ordained minister. He assisted the aging Elder Brewster and officially became their leader in 1638. It was probably at that point the First Meeting House was built on Chestnut Street, beside the present Old Burying Ground. The larger Second Meeting House replaced it in 1708.

Duxbury had become incorporated, June 17, 1637, and included Pembroke, parts of Marshfield, Kingston and Bridgewater. Gradually the center of the settlement began to move westward from the Nook. By 1784 the town had voted to replace the second Meeting House with a finer new (Third) building. It was to be built near the present site, at the junction of Tremont and Depot streets.

In 1787, the Third Meeting House, a grand square building of the Georgian style, was constructed and painted, "yellow oker." By 1819 a cupola had been built, and alterations were made for seats for "people of color" and "singers." A bell had been hung and a clock was presented by Ezra Weston, a successful shipbuilder and merchant.

Duxbury's first three meeting houses housed civil as well as religious functions for almost 200 years. By 1833, the (First Parish) society legally ceased to be the village parish. The official Massachusetts separation of church and state took place a few months later in 1834. 

Earlier, religious change had begun to shape the town. New churches had been built along Washington street; Methodist Episcopal in 1823, Universalist in 1826 and by 1844 Wesleyan Methodist. First Parish became the First Unitarian Parish on March 3, 1828. It continued to use the community's Third Meeting House until 1840 when the Third Meeting House was razed and the Unitarian Church, the fourth building was constructed near its site.

Temple-like in form, representing the popular Greek Revival style of the period, it was the first of three buildings of the same architectural style which were built in a row on the hill. The other two were town buildings; the new "Town House," (Old Town Hall), adjacent today, was completed the same year, 1840. The town's school, Partridge Academy, opened in 1844, burned in 1934. The new town hall was built on the Partridge Academy site and dedicated July 4, 1975.

- Polly P. Nash May 24, 1995