Cheshire Community Church

The Community Church in Cheshire is the latest in a long tradition of religious institutions in and near the hamlet, beginning in 1796, when a Methodist Episcopal congregation was established in the vicinity of Route 21 and Nott Road. Nearby congregations of the Baptist and Christian denominations followed in Cheshire and Academy, and in 1840 the First Freewill Baptist Church of Canandaigua built the first church in Cheshire on this site, sharing the structure with the Methodist and the Christian denominations. The current church building was built in 1870, and continued to be shared by multiple congregations for decades. Eventually the various Cheshire churches opted to merge into a single entity called the Union Church of Cheshire. This early image was taken before the construction of the front porch, and before the 1910 addition of stained glass windows.