By Ken Valenti

WESTPORT–Next week, the Saugatuck Congregational Church will hold a celebration to commemorate that day in 1950 when the congregation showed the nation that theirs was a house of worship on the move.

On that Aug. 28, in the middle of the 20^th century, the church was hoisted onto logs and inched 600 feet across Post Road, downhill, to where it sits now. The event was captured by Life magazine in its Sept. 11, 1950, edition.

“They moved it off the street and up the driveway and somehow flipped it around (to face the Post Road),” said Bob Mitchell, the church moderator, or lay leader.

On On Nov. 1, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m, the church will celebrate the 75^th anniversary of the move, which was attended by 500 people. The Life article quotes a woman at the time saying that the moving of the church, attended by 500, was “more fun than a cocktail party!”

The congregation is planning the same fun spirit for the anniversary. They will celebrate the milestone with outdoor festivities including children’s activities. They also will stage a symbolic reenactment of the move. Food trucks will be on hand.

The public is welcome – and organizers especially encourage any church members who witnessed the move seven and a half decades ago to join in.

“We’re inviting people who were here at the time to come,” Mitchell said. “We want to recognize those people.”

Built in 1832, the church moved to eight acres that had been donated in 1884 by banker and philanthropist Morris K. Jesup. The property included a house that serves as the parsonage. The sanctuary stayed the same, but the larger property allowed the church to build an extension with classroom space and offices.

As Life magazine reported, “(W)ith the highway blocked off, movers inched the church along on rollers at a rate of 60 feet an hour. Sightseers from all over fashionable Fairfield County came to watch and church members sold food to help pay the $10,000 moving bill.”

“Apparently, it went quite smoothly,” Mitchell said. “They just hitched it up and started pulling it.”

The Rev. Steven Savides, who became the church pastor just a few weeks ago, takes the church-on-the-move symbolism to heart.

“That’s a wonderful metaphor for the church always being in motion,” he said. “We, too, are on the move, we have to respond to the needs of our society as it changes.”

It also doesn’t hurt that the church now sits immediately next to the parsonage, his residence.

“(It’s) right next to the house which is good for me and my commute to work every morning,” he quipped.