Octagon

The site of Amherst College’s Octagon, also known as the old Amherst College observatory, is the location of the town’s first meetinghouse and parish. In 1734, The Third Precinct of Hadley was organized, which required a meeting house and a minister as suggested by the General Court. Though the meeting house was not completed until 1753,  Reverend David Parsons, owner of three slaves was ordained as a pastor of the church in 1739. He preached to an audience consisting of whites, slaves, and free blacks. An indication that the town people or the Reverand allowed blacks to worship under the same roof as whites.  In 1759, The Third Precinct of Hadley became the District of Amherst. Reverend Parson baptized his slave Goffy, the son of Pompey and Rose at the Parish, a further indicatiot that slave's were allowed to be baptized in the Parish. The site of Amherst's first meetinghouse is now the occupied by Amherst College’s Black Student Union.