The Congregational Society in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, was first organized and began convening in its first meeting house in 1769. On November 24, 1772, the town appointed the Rev. Jonathan Barns to take oversight over the church’s meetings in the town, and several months later, on May 25, 1773, the annual town meeting called for the erection of a second meeting house. That construction was completed around 1779 on a hill southeast of the Hillsborough town center, which came to be known as “Meeting House Hill.” When the congregation outgrew that building, they constructed a third, larger meeting house. The building of the third meeting house began in 1789 and was finished in about three years. The Rev. Jonathan Barnes continued to serve as minister for the congregation until 1803, when he was struck by lightning while horseback riding. He died as a result of his accident in 1805.

The third meeting house served the community until 1839, when a group of church members withdrew to form their own congregation and build their own meeting house, a fourth, in Bridge Village, closer to where those members were living. That community initially called itself the Hillsborough Bridge Village Congregational Church but eventually adopted the name Smith Memorial Congregational Church, after Governor John B. Smith, who contributed funds to the building’s renovation in 1909. Smith Memorial continues to meet today and is presently affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

After the split in the church community and the construction of the fourth Bridge Village meeting house in 1839, the “Old Meeting House” (the third) ceased to serve as a house of worship and instead became a town house used primarily for community meetings. The building then became a house of worship for a local Methodist congregation, and it was finally abandoned in 1874. Efforts were underway in the late 1880s and early 1890s to restore the building, but it burned down in a fire in 1892.

After the fire, the efforts that had been directed at restoring the third building were redirected instead into the construction of a new fifth church building. That building was dedicated on August 15, 1893. Records from 1897 to 1909 indicate that this church hosted an active Junior Society of Christian Endeavor for its youth. This fifth building served the Congregational Society until the 1920s, when its doors closed. In 1935, though, some community members expressed a desire for the church to reopen, and repairs on the building were undertaken and it was reopened for summer services.

In 1968, the Hillsborough Center Congregational Society was incorporated, and it celebrated its bicentennial in 1969. The society continues to this day to hold Sunday services during the summer, relying on supply ministers from throughout the Northeastern United States. The society has been maintained by a group of church officers including a clerk, treasurer, pulpit supply chairperson, building and grounds chairperson, flower chairperson, and cemetery chairperson.