The Northfield United Methodist Parish is a community with story that originates in three congregations, one in Northfield, another in Northfield Falls, and a third in Riverton.

Methodists were first noted in the Northfield area beginning in 1802, meeting in homes, barns, and schoolhouses. By 1804, the group had grown to 20 participants, and in June of 1806, Francis Asbury, the first Methodist bishop and circuit rider visited the area to see the growth of the movement. The region’s Methodists would meet in several different places until finally, in 1954, they erected the church building that houses the Northfield Parish. At that time, over 200 people attended Sunday School, and the larger attendance led to the enlargement of the building.

While Methodism was growing in Northfield, a similar movement was underway in Northfield Falls. They too started by meeting in schools but in 1896 they built a new meeting space and in 1936 added on to the church by constructing Tamarack Hall to provide more space. In 1978, the fuel crisis led the Northfield Falls church to start worshipping with the Northfield church to cut expenses, and by 2000, the two churches had merged into a single entity called the Northfield United Methodist Parish. The Northfield Falls meeting house was sold in 2001 to the Saint Jacob of Alaska Orthodox Church.

In 1842, a new Methodist church was formed in Berlin. Over time it would be called by several names — Berlin, West Berlin, Lanesville, and eventually Riverton, McKenzie Memorial. In 1907 the church would build their first building, and would add onto the building in 1907 (the Ladies Aid Hall), and 1958 (The McKenzie Memorial Parish Hall). The church had a vibrant ministry over the years, but by 2009 the church had been declining and was closed. The members of the church were incorporated into the Northfield parish.

The current building has many distinctive features, including stained glass windows originating in England, New York, and Boston.

The historic “tracker” organ is the second largest mechanical organ in Vermont, and was built in 1854 by Benjamin Dearborn Simmons. It is the most sizable of the organs built by Simmons and is one of the ten oldest in the state of Vermont.

The people called Methodists were a vital force in the Northfield area. The churches would regularly hold “camp meetings” centered in a pine grove on the northern outskirts of town. Hundreds of people throughout the region would travel to the area by train, horse drawn carriages, and on foot to attend these revival meetings, which strengthened the church both spiritually and numerically.

Summarizing the past, a local historian wrote about the Northfield Parish “…the vitality and purpose of parishioners has never changed. Their work continues as it has for generations, to warm hearts, change attitudes, heal hearts, dispel loneliness, and offer hope. Their witness fo Jesus Christ is the true Christ!”

—The history was adapted from “A Spreading Flame, the story of churches in the Troy Annual Conference”