[1] Also, gunpowder and shot were stockpiled there for the defense of the community, and the meetinghouse was the recruiting site for a Continental Army that was formed in Litchfield early in the Revolutionary War.

[6][7] Beecher's eloquence in his opposition to Unitarianism led to his being invited to leave Litchfield in 1826 to serve a church in Boston, where his fame as a preacher grew.

[11] The 1829 meetinghouse was built after the church had outgrown its 1761 building, due in part to the popularity of Lyman Beecher's preaching.

The fourth meetinghouse, which was completed in 1873, was a wooden structure in a Victorian Gothic style, with stained-glass windows and dark-colored pews and pulpit furniture.

In 1930, the third meetinghouse, which had been in use at various times as a dance hall, armory, cinema, gymnasium, and roller skating rink, was reconstructed on its original site and rededicated "for the town's use in public worship".

[2][3][13] The community effort was inspired by news reports about plans to build a replica of an old English village in a suburb of Chicago; several New York City residents who maintained summer homes in Litchfield resolved to undertake a similar project to restore the town center to a look consistent with its own history.

[2] A major restoration project, with an estimated cost of $1.9 million, was undertaken in 2005 to address problems due to serious structural deterioration, as well as to install a sprinkler system and renovate the church parsonage.