 It was built in 1671 when settlers tore down their original meeting house, which they had outgrown after three decades, and used some of the timbers to put up a school near the Old Town Hall on Atlantic Square.On the nearby common they built a new meeting house, which also served as the Congregational church.In 1838 William Betts founded Betts Academy in Stamford which operated until it burned in 1908.