Newton Highlands Congregational Church’s new office manager, Annemarie Rom-Weisenbach, came across a Boston Globe article by George M. Collins from December 17, 1965, that reveals some of the history of a Weekday Church School in Newton Highlands.
According to the article, the school was a joint project of Newton Highlands Congregational Church, UCC, and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, located nearby, on Walnut Street. Students ranged from age three through grade 9.
“The joint effort came about over a period of several years as the result of far-seeing lay leaders and unusually cooperative clergy,” the article states. Senior ministers the Reverend John M. Balcom (St. Paul’s) and the Reverend Paul G. Pitman (NHCC), “became convinced that ‘we could have a much more professional school by combining forces.'”
Mrs. Paul Pitman and Mrs. Arthur (Marianne) Talis were among the teachers at the school.
At some point, the Weekday Church School evolved into the Weekday Nursery School, also held at NHCC. That program, exclusively for preschoolers, was incorporated in March 1971 and closed in 2018.
