Editor:

First let me thank you for writing an article about our historic church  [“One of Maine’s finest, First Parish church showing its age,” Nov. 21]. We are quite proud of our congregation’s nearly 260 year history in Kennebunk, most of which has been spent in our venerable old building. So much of the history of Kennebunk and even Maine is associated with our church, from having served as the town hall and library for many years, to our nearly two-century tradition of work with the native tribes of Maine such as the Penobscot.

But I must correct a few minor errors in the article. The first correction is that our clock is an E. Howard and not a Hook and Hastings. The latter is the company that manufactured our organ.

The second correction is that the Paul Revere Bell was installed in 1803 (with direct involvement from Paul Revere himself). The clock installed in 1858 was an extremely rare Turret and Marine designed by Aaron Crane.

We are in possession of many of the original parts from that clock. It was replaced by the E. Howard in the late 1800s when it became increasingly difficult to find anyone who knew how the Crane clock worked (Crane himself made very few clocks before he died prematurely of an illness).

Thank you again for your article and I would like to remind our readers that we’re about a lot more than simply our history. Visitors are always welcome even if you just want to have a look at our great old building!

Ian T. Durham

Historian/Archivist, First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, Kennebunk