<p>The former Seal Harbor Congregational Church is a historic church building on Peabody Drive  in Seal Harbor, Maine. It was built in 1902, and is an elegant expression of the Shingle style in a seasonal church building. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985; it is now vacant.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The former Seal Harbor Congregational Church is set on the southwest corner of Peabody Drive and Dodge Point Road. The two-story stone and wood building is set facing northeast, toward the junction. It has a gabled roof that descends to the top of the first floor, with large brackets at the sides. The high foundation is of squared quarry-faced stone, and the main floors are finished in wooden shingles, with a belt course separating the floors. The entrance, at the center of the main facade, is set back under a round stone arch that rises from the foundation, and is topped by a curved portico-like roof section. Single windows flank the entrance outside the arch. The second floor windows, a band of four windows, are sheltered by a rounded continuation of the main roof. The windows used in the building are all diamond-paned casement windows.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1902 to provide worship services to the area&#39;s summer population; its architect was Grosvenor Atterbury. The church was closed when a year-round church was built in Seal Harbor village, and was rescued from demolition by a local summer resident.</p><br>
<p>The Union Church of Northeast Harbor is a historic church at 21 Summit Road in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Designed by Peabody and Stearns and built in 1887, it is a notable local example of Shingle style architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. The congregation is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Union Church is set on the northeast side of Summit Road, just north of its junction with Joy Road in a residential area of Northeast Harbor. It is a cruciform structure, built out of stone and wood. Most of the structure is built out of glacial till, with dressed granite corner quoins and stone buttresses. The end of the transept is finished in vertical board-and-batten siding, and the roof is finished in wood shingles. A squat stone tower rises above the southeastern end of the building. The street-facing facade of the church presents its long axis, with the long nave to the left, and the main entrance just to the right of the south transept, sheltered by a buttressed porch.</p><br>
<p>The church congregation was established in 1883, at first meeting in a local school. In 1886, the congregation, a mix of summer and full-time residents, formally organized and acquired the land for the building. The noted Boston firm of Peabody and Stearns, one of New Englands leading architectural firms of the period, designed the building, which was completed in 1887. The firm was also responsible for alterations to the transept gable ends made in 1913. This church was highlighted among those built along Maines seacoast for its particularly organic appearance in relationship to its surroundings.</p><br>
<p>West Brooksville Congregational Church is an historic church in West Brooksville, Maine on the east side of Maine State Route 176, 1 mi northwest of the junction with Varnum Road. Built in 1855 for a congregation established in 1812, the present church building is a fine local example of Greek Revival architecture, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. The congregation is affiliated with the United Church of Christ; worship is held every Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Sunday School begins at 9 a.m. Communion is served the first Sunday of every month.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture and history</h2><br>
<p>The church is set on the east side of Maine 176, on a rise a short way south of the rural village of West Brooksville in northwestern Brooksville. It is a single-story wood frame structure with well-preserved exterior and interior Greek Revival elements. The main facade, which faces west, has symmetrically-placed entrances, each flanked by pilasters and topped by a transom window and entablature. The entrances are separated by taller pilasters, which are also found at the corners, supporting an entablature and a full triangular pediment. Rising above the entrances is the tower, which begins with square stages topped by a sawn balustrade, which encircles the octagonal belfry. Four sides of the belfry have louvered openings, with pilasters rising to an entablature, above which the octagonal steeple rises to a spire. A vestry has been added on to the nave, projecting to the right from the rear. Interior decoration includes molded window surrounds adorned with rosettes and vines, paneled pilasters flanking the doorways to the nave and the chancel. The nave retains original pews; its metal ceiling is a late-19th century alteration. The interior suffered some damaged in a 1982 fire, but this has been restored.</p><br>
<p>The West Brooksville congregation was organized in 1812, meeting for many years in a building shared with a school and town meetings. The congregation authorized construction of the present building in 1854, and it was completed in 1855. Credit for its design is conventionally given to Thomas Gardner, a local master builder, but Thomas Lord, a noted master builder from Blue Hill may have played a significant role; he is credited with the construction of a number other area churches whose designs bear some resemblance to this one.</p><br>
<p>Wilson Hall is a historic Methodist seminary building on Franklin Street in Bucksport, Maine. Built in 1850-51 by the Eastern Maine Methodist Conference, it housed the only Methodist seminary in eastern Maine, and was the only seminary in Hancock County. Of the two surviving buildings of the seminary, this is the finest, a handsome Greek Revival structure that is a distinctive local landmark. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>Wilson Hall is set on the north side of Franklin Street on the outskirts of Bucksport village, just west of a cemetery fronting on McDonald Street. It sits atop a rise that would have a commanding view of the village if a band of trees did not intervene. The building is a two-story gable-roofed structure, with load-bearing brick walls two stories high, and wood frame gable ends and roof structure. A two-stage square belfry rises at the center of the roof ridge, and the main entrance is centered on the long side, facing toward the village to the south. A shed-roof dormer has been added to the north side of the roof. On the same property further west stands the seminary&#39;s original 1855 dormitory, which has been significantly altered and is no longer historically significant.</p><br>
<p>The Eastern Maine Methodist Conference was established in 1848, due in part to the rise in Methodisms popularity in the region in the 1840s. The conference elected to build a seminary soon afterward, and Wilson Hall was built in 1850-51. It is the largest Greek Revival building in Bucksport, and was home to the countys only seminary. The school closed in 1933. In 1941 the property was purchased by an order Roman Catholic Oblate Fathers, who operated St. Joseph&#39;s Seminary on the premises until 1971. The property was sold to a private owner in 1978. After standing vacant and deteriorating for many years, the building is now owned by the town and is the subject of preservation efforts.</p><br>
<p>West Gouldsboro Union Church is an historic church on Maine State Route 186 between Jones Cove and Jones Pond in West Gouldsboro, Maine. Built in 1888-91, it is a distinctive and eclectic example of Queen Anne Victorian architecture. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The West Gouldsboro Union Church is set on the east side of South Gouldsboro Road (SR 186), on a wide neck of land separating Jones Pond and Jones Cove, about 0.5 mi south of United States Route 1. It is a roughly L-shaped wood frame structure, with a steeply-pitched gable roof over the nave, whose ridge is parallel to the street. Projecting to the front of this are a broad cross-gabled section, and an entrance vestibule topped by a square tower with pyramidal roof. Below the projecting gable section are three round-arch windows, with bands of paneled woodwork below the pedimented gable. The gable is finished in clapboard except for its peak area, which has applied Stick style woodwork. The tower section has a double door flanked by sash windows, with a flared section leading to the tower&#39;s first stage, which has a single rose window. Above this is an arcade of blind arches, above which a band of half rounds are set beneath the roof. The interior of the church has stained patterned narrow board sheathing on its walls.</p><br>
<p>The church was built between 1888 and 1891, as funding and community labor became available to work on it. Its architect is unknown. It is one of a relatively modest number of wood-frame churches built on the Maine coast in that time, as most of the churches built for summer resort areas were built out of stone and brick. Of churches known to date to this period, it is unusual for its layout and its interior decoration.</p><br>
<p>War Memorial Gymnasium is a 2,500-seat multi-purpose indoor arena in the northwest United States, on the campus of the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. Opened in November 1928, the venue honors state residents who gave their lives in the service of their country in World War I.</p><br>
<p>The architectural style is Tudor-Gothic and is heavily buttressed; the chief architect was David C. Lange, the head of the university&#39;s architecture department. The west end addition was built from 1951–52, and the building was renovated in 1954. Ivy partially covers the brick and concrete exterior, which is decorated with crouching football player gargoyles and stained glass windows. The elevation at street level is approximately 2,600 ft above sea level.</p><br>
<p>Memorial Gymnasium was the primary home of Vandal basketball until January 1976, replaced by the newly-enclosed Kibbie Dome; the Domes basketball configuration was renamed "Cowan Spectrum" in early 2001. Currently the "Mem Gym" is the home court of Vandal womens volleyball, and occasionally hosts early season basketball games, depending upon the late season football schedule. During the 1940s and early 1950s, Idaho had a nationally prominent boxing team; 5,200 attended a dual meet against neighbor Washington State in 1950. It was dropped by the university as an intercollegiate sport in 1954, and discontinued by the NCAA after 1960.</p><br>
<p>The facility is used extensively for physical education classes, intramurals, and open recreation. Commencement ceremonies for the university were traditionally held in the venue from 1929 through 1975. Since 1976, the Kibbie Dome has hosted the primary ceremony for all graduates, and the Mem Gym is one of several venues used for individual college ceremonies for the awarding of diplomas.</p><br>
<p>At just 49 years of age, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. The narrow swimming pool in the basement of the Mem Gym was retired in 1970, when the new swim center opened. For the first seven years of the Kibbie Dome, it lacked locker rooms and the Vandals and visiting teams dressed in the Memorial Gym. The completion of the East End Addition in the fall of 1982 ended the long trek, frequently in rain or snow during basketball season.</p><br>
<p>The All Souls Church is a historic former church building at 70 State Street in Augusta, Maine. Built in 1879, it is one of Maine&#39;s finest examples of Stick style architecture. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The former All Souls Church building is located in central Augusta, at the northwest corner of Oak and State Streets. It is a two-story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof, clapboarded exterior, and granite foundation. A square tower projects from the State Street side, now consisting of two relatively plain stages separated by a skirt of roofing. The State Street facade is visually complex, with gabled entrances in the tower and at the north end, and a small cross gable between, with applied woodwork above a pair of tall sash windows. The Oak Street facade has a pair of large sash windows, framed by similar applied trim which rises to a point in the gable above, with a square carved panel at its point, and another elaborate panel mounted at the peak of the gable.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1879 for a Unitarian congregation established in 1825 by a division of older congregations, and was its third home. It was designed by Thomas Silloway, a native of Newburyport, Massachusetts whose most prominent work is the Vermont State House. It is a particularly fine example of Stick style architecture, a style that is not widespread in Maine. In 1987, the building was purchased by the River Rock congregation, which occupied it until 2008, when it moved to Chelsea.</p><br>
<p>Christ Episcopal Church is a historic church located at 1 Dresden Avenue in Gardiner, Maine. Built in 1820 for the oldest congregation in the Episcopal Diocese of Maine. It is the oldest known example of ecclesiastical Gothic Revival architecture in New England, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>Christ Episcopal Church is located in central Gardiner, on the east side the town common and the junction of Church and Dresden Streets. It is a rectangular stone structure with a square tower projecting from the center of the front (west-facing) facade. The main roof has flat wings and a gabled center, and is surrounded by low battlement-style crenellations. The square portion of the tower is topped by similar crenellations, with an octagonal spire above. The front facade has entrances in the tower and the flanking sections, set in lancet-arched openings. Above each is a Gothic window with tracery, that in the tower considerably larger. The side elevations each have three tall Gothic windows.</p><br>
<p>The Episcopal Church in Gardiner was organized in 1772 by Sylvester Gardiner, a major landowner for whom the city is named. This building, constructed in 1820, is its third sanctuary, the first having succumbed to fire in 1792, and the congregation having outgrown the second. It was designed by the Rev. Samuel Farmer Jarvis in what was then termed the "Gothick" style, which was then without precedent in New England.</p><br>
<p>The First Baptist Church is a historic church at 1 Park Street  in Waterville, Maine. Built in 1826, it is the city&#39;s oldest standing public building. It was renovated in 1875 to a design by Francis H. Fassett. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The First Baptist Church is located in the center of Waterville, at the northwest corner of Park and Elm Streets. It is a two story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof, clapboard siding, and a granite foundation. It is basically rectangular in plan, with a projecing entry vestibule, and a vestry addition to the rear. The building&#39;s facade is ornately decorated, with paneled corner pilasters rising to bracketed eaves. Windows are narrow sash, separated between floors by panels, with moulded hoods above the second-floor windows. A tower rises above the main roof, with a square stage rising to an octagonal louvered belfry and then a steeple with flared base.</p><br>
<p>The Baptist congregation in Waterville was established in 1818 by Rev. Jeramiah Chaplin, and at first met in the towns meeting house. In 1824 the congregation began fundraising to build its own church, which resulted in construction of the present building two years later. In 1875, the building was renovated in the latest Victorian styles to a design by Portland-based Francis H. Fassett, then one of the states leading architects.</p><br>
<p>The Jesse Lee Church is a historic church at Maine State Route 27 and Plains Road in Readfield, Maine. Built in 1795 through the missionary work of Jesse Lee, it is the oldest surviving Methodist church in the state of Maine. It is still used seasonally for services, organized by the Readfield United Methodist Church. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Jesse Lee Church stands in a rural area of eastern Readfield, at the northwest corner of Plains Road and Main Street (State Routes 17 and 135). It is a modest single-story wood frame structure, with a gabled rood and clapboard siding. A square tower with belfry and steeple rises from the roof ridge. The front facade has a pair of entrances, one on each side of a central sash window. The gable above is fully pedimented. The building corners have paneled pilasters rising to an entablature, and the square elements of the tower are also pilastered.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1795 by the local community, after Jesse Lee, a charismatic Methodist minister from Virginia, preached to them. The building was original located further up the hill to its rear; it was moved in 1825 to its present location, at which time its Greek Revival stylisting elements were added. The building continues to be used periodically for Methodist religious services.</p><br>
<p>The Old Pittston Congregational Church  is a historic church building on Pittston School Road in Pittston, Maine. Built in 1836, it is an architecturally distinctive blend of Federal, Greek Revival, and Gothic Revival architecture, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The congregation, organized in 1812 by Major Reuben Colburn, now meets at 21 Arnold Road. It is affiliated with the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Old Pittston Congregational Church stands in a small crossroads village south of the main village of Pittston. It is located on the east side of Pittston School Road (a former alignment of Maine State Route 27), just north of its junction with East Pittston Road (Maine State Route 194), and northeast of that road&#39;s junction with the current alignment of SR 27. It is a 1-1/2 story rectangular wood frame building, with a gabled roof, clapboard siding, and granite foundation. The front facade, facing west, has six Doric pilasters supporting an entablature, with a fully pedimented gable above. There are two doorways between two pairs of pilasters, each topped by a sash window with a fixed rounded top. Similar windows adorn the building sides. Rising from the roof is a two-stage square tower, its upper stage housing a belfry with round-arch louvered openings.</p><br>
<p>Pittstons First Congregational Church was organized in 1812 by Major Reuben Colburn, who lived to the south, and is best known for his work assisting Benedict Arnolds expedition to Quebec in the American Revolutionary War. This church was built in 1836, and represents a distinctive blending of architectural styles. Its basic form is Federal, but its facade has Greek Revival elements, with Gothic style windows. Historic documentation indicates that the church tower was once adorned by corner pinnacles, also a Gothic feature. The building was used by the congregation until 1894, when it relocated to a more centrally located facility. The congregation currently meets at 21 Arnold Street, just north of the Major Reuben Colburn House.</p><br>
<p>Pond Meeting House is a historic Quaker meeting house off United States Route 202 in China, Maine. Built in 1807, it is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the town, and an important element in the early life and spiritual growth of Quaker writer Rufus Jones. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Pond Meeting House stands about 3 mi north of the village of South China, on United States Route 202. It is a modest 1-1/2 story wood frame structure, with gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. A cross-gabled vestibule projects from one of the long sides, with a pair of entrances flanking a sash window, with a second sash window in the gable. The building has simple trim; the doors have modest cornices above. The interior of the building consists of a single large chamber, which was originally filled with pews and divided into two sections by a shutter mechanism; both the pews and shutters have been removed, and one portion of the chamber has been walled off to form a kitchen.</p><br>
<p>The meeting house was built in 1807, and is one of China&#39;s oldest surviving buildings. It was here that Rufus Jones, born and raised in South China, attended Quaker services. He would have been exposed to the teachings of important itinerant Quaker teachers here. When listed on the National Register in 1983, it was in use as part of a religious summer camp.</p><br>
<p>Today the meeting house is in use by, the Quaker camp under the care of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends. When the camp was founded in 1953, the meeting house was the only building, used for eating, sleeping, and worship. As the camp has grown and transformed, daily worship was moved to a larger building and the meeting house became the arts building.</p><br>
<p>The Readfield Union Meeting House is a historic brick meeting house at 22 Church Road in Readfield, Maine. Built in 1828, it is a particularly fine example of Federal period architecture for a rural context. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Readfield Union Meeting House stands in Readfield&#39;s main village, on the west side of Church Road, a short way north of its junction with Maine State Route 41. It is a single-story brick building, with a gable roof topped by a frame tower. The tower projects slightly from the front facade, and has a single tall round-arch window at the center of first level, with a low pedimented gable separating the brick base from the upper stages. The tall second stage is square, with a clock in the upper section; it is topped by an octagonal belfry with louvered openings flanked by Doric pilasters. It is covered by a bell-cast roof. Flanking the tower on the front facade are bays with building entrances at the ground level, with round-arch windows above. The side walls have tall round-arch windows set in recessed openings.</p><br>
<p>Originally built in 1828, the church is an unusually fine example of Federal period church architecture in rural interior Maine. The building was remodeled in 1866-1868 by Hubbard Lovejoy, an architect and builder of central Maine. Part of this renovation included the painting of the walls and ceiling in the trompe l&#39;oeil style, claimed to be the work of artist Charles J. Schumacher of Portland, Maine.</p><br>
<p>The Oak Garden Chapel, also known historically as the River Meetinghouse and the Sophia D. Bailey Chapel, is a non-denominational chapel at United States Route 201 and Oak Garden Road in Vassalboro, Maine. Built in 1786 as a Quaker meetinghouse, it was Vassalboro&#39;s first religious building. In 1895 it was restyled in the Shingle style, with a portico and tower added, and converted to non-denomination use by the Oak Garden-Coburn School . The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Oak Garden Chapel stands in a rural area north of Vassalboros village center, at the northeast corner of US 201 and Oak Garden Road. The campus of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, formerly that of the Oak Garden-Coburn School, lies just east of, and across Oak Garden Road, from the chapel. It is a single-story short-legged T-shaped wood frame structure, with gabled roofs and a square tower rising from one of the Ts corners. The exterior is almost entirely shingled, with rounded arches predominating as an architectural detail, from the main entrance portico on the right to the semicircular floral panel on the end of the T, and the secondary entrance to its left. The tower rises to an open belvedere with round-arch openings, and is topped by a pyramidal roof.</p><br>
<p>The area that became Vassalboro was settled in the 1770s by a group of Quakers from Nantucket. The core of the present chapel was built in 1786 to serve as their meetinghouse, and later became the site of quarterly regional meetings. To provide for the education of their children, the Quakers also established the Oak Garden School, which merged with Watervilles Coburn Academy in 1970 and closed in 1989. With enrollment in the church declining, its meetinghouse was formally deeded to the school in 1895, which used it as a non-denominational chapel. It was at that time given extensive alteration, designed by William H. Douglas and funded by Sophia D. Bailey. During the schools ownership it was known as the Sophia D. Bailey Memorial Chapel.</p><br>
<p>The South Parish Congregational Church and Parish House is a historic church at 9 Church Street in Augusta, Maine. Built in 1865, the church is a major Gothic Revival work of Maine&#39;s leading mid-19th century architect, Francis H. Fassett, and its 1889 parish house, designed by James H. Cochrane, is a rare example in the state of Stick style architecture. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The congregation was established in 1773, when the area was part of Hallowell.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The South Parish Congregational Church is located in central Augusta, on a lot bounded by Bridge, State, and Church Streets. The parish house is located on the western part of the lot, and is joined to the south-facing church by a connector. The church is an elaborate example of the Gothic Revival in granite, with a gabled slate roof broken by a clerestory. The front facade is in three sections, with the primary tower on the left and a secondary tower on the right, with the main entrance in a Gothic-arched opening in between. A large stained glass window adorns the wall above the main entrance, and there is a small round window near the peak of the gable. Both towers have buttressed corners, the right one rising to a steeply pitched gable roof with stepped gables, while the more dominating left one rises to a third stage belfry and octagonal steeple with flared edges.</p><br>
<p>In 1773, a congregational parish was organized in the town of Hallowell, which was divided into three in 1795, with this organization becoming the "middle" parish. It became Augustas south parish when Augusta was separated from Hallowell in 1797. Its first meeting house was built in 1795, and its second in 1809. That church was struck by lightning and burned in 1864, and the present church was built in 1866 as its replacement. It is a mature work of Maines leading mid-19th century architect, Francis H. Fassett, and is a local landmark. The parish house, added in 1889-90 to a design by Augusta architect James Cochrane, is one of Maine&#39;s few examples of high-style Stick style architecture.</p><br>
<p>The South China Meeting House, now known as the South China Community Church, is a historic church on Village Street in South China, Maine. Built in 1884 as a Quaker meeting house, it is now home to multi-denominational congregation. It is notable as one of the places that influenced Quaker writer Rufus Jones, who was raised in South China and attended services here after this building replaced the Pond Meeting House. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The South China Community Church is located in the center of South China village, on the north side of Village Street. It is a rambling single-story structure, whose most prominent feature is a square tower that has a louvered belfry and pyramidal top. To the right of the tower, a low shed-hip-roof section fronts a taller section with a front-facing gable. This tall section is the original sanctuary. To the left of the tower is a short-gable section, which gives way to a longer gabled section with a lower roof. The main entrance is at the base of the tower, sheltered by a gabled hood, with secondary entrances immediately to its left (under a shed-roof extension of the short ell) and at the far end of the long ell.</p><br>
<p>The church&#39;s original sanctuary was built in 1883 by the local Quaker community, as a replacement for the Pond Meeting House. It was a simple frame structure similar to its predecessor, and was enlarged about 1900 by the addition of the tower and an extension of the sanctuary space. The additions to the left are from a later period. Writer Rufus Jones, who was born and raised in South China, continued to summer here as an adult, and regularly attended Quaker meetings here, and was reported to speak at them often.</p><br>
<p>St. Mark&#39;s Episcopal Church is a historic church and active congregation at 9 Summer Street in Augusta, Maine, just west of downtown. The congregation, founded in 1840, occupies an 1886 Gothic Revival stone building designed by Richard M. Upjohn and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 for its architecture.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The congregation was established in 1840, and first occupied a small wooden church that located just north of the current site of the Lithgow Library. The present building was built for the congregation in 1886 to a design by the noted architect Richard M. Upjohn. A window honoring Saint Mark from the old church is part of the current church and stands behind the choir stalls. The congregation continues to be active to this day and houses multiple community ministries. These include the Addie&#39;s Attic Clothing Bank, Everyday Basics Essentials Pantry and the Augusta Area Food Bank, all of which operate in the adjacent Parish Hall, which was built in 1959.</p><br>
<h2>Activities</h2><br>
<p>Outside of church services, Saint Marks Church also serves as a venue for musical performances. Most prominent among these is an organ concert held every spring since 1997. In 2010, the annual concert was renamed the Annual Marilyn Tedesco Memorial Concert in honor of former St. Marks Music Director and organist Marilyn Tedesco.</p><br>
<p>Saint Marks is one of two Episcopal congregations in Augusta. The other is Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church on the citys east side.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The church occupies a lot between Summer and Pleasant Streets a short way west of downtown Augusta. It is built out of quarry-faced granite, with a gable-roofed main section oriented east-west and two south-facing gabled projections. The western of the two projections has a tall square tower, with buttressed corners, belfry, and pyramidal roof topped by a cross. Windows are either lancet-arched in the Gothic style, or rectangular, and are decorated with tracery. The interior includes marble columns and detailed high-quality woodwork. The chancel ceiling has original stencil decorations.</p><br>
<p>St. Marys Church is a Roman Catholic church at 41 Western Avenue in Augusta, Maine. Built in 1926, it is one of the citys finest examples of Gothic Revival architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>St. Marys Church stands on the north side of Western Avenue, southwest of Augustas downtown and north of the state capitol complex. It is a single-story masonry structure, built out of ashlar granite. The long nave is oriented perpendicular to the street, with a steeply pitched gable roof. Set back from the front are side projections, a single-story entrance vestibule on the left, and the main tower on the right. The main entrance is at the center of the nave end, in an ornately decorated projecting Gothic-arch opening, with buttresses and pinnacles at the corners. The main tower is equally ornate, rising first to a gabled roof with a tall steeple above that. The interior has seen only minimal alteration since the building&#39;s construction.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1926-27 in order to handle growth in the citys Roman Catholic population. It was built as the third sanctuary for a parish established in 1830. It was designed by the Boston architectural firm of OConnell and Shaw; T.G. OConnell had by then a well-established reputation, with numerous commissions for Roman Catholic church and school edifices in Maine. St. Marys was merged with four other congregations in 2007 to form a single large parish called St. Michaels; this continues to be used as one of that parishs churches.</p><br>
<p>The Universalist-Unitarian Church is a historic church on Silver Street and Elm Street in Waterville, Maine in the United States. Built in 1832 for a Universalist congregation founded in 1826, it is a prominent local example of transitional Federal-Gothic Revival architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>For over 200 years, the Universalist-Unitarian Church of Waterville, Maine has been part of the spiritual, religious and social life of the community. Two local churches combined to form the church as it is known today, a decade before the national merger of the two denominations into one.</p><br>
<p>In 1798, Thomas Barnes, a circuit minister, organized the Eastern Maine Association of Universalists. He held meetings in Winthrop, Waterville, Oakland and other nearby places. He was the first Universalist minister in the District of Maine in 1802.</p><br>
<p>In 1820, Reverend Sylvanus Cobb of Norway, the second Universalist minister ordained in Maine, preached in Waterville for the first time. On May 28, 1826, he organized the first Universalist Church in Maine. The church had twenty members and met in Rev. Cobb&#39;s Waterville home. By 1831, the society became formally organized and decided to build a church. Jediah Morrill converted to the faith and gave the largest donation to the building fund. On July 9, 1832, the present church was finished and furnished with 60 pews at a cost of $4,100. It was dedicated in January of the following year. Members raised $360 to purchase a bell and Jediah Morrill gave the clock costing $350. That same year, Rev. Calvin Gardiner began his twenty-year ministry. The church struggled financially over the years, sometimes closing for a year or two at a time.</p><br>
<p>In 1894, the church was badly damaged by a chimney fire. As part of the building&#39;s repair, the church was turned to face the point where Elm and Silver Streets meet. A new organ was purchased and stained glass windows were given by members and church groups. In 1921, the church building was raised and the Averill Parlors constructed in the new basement.</p><br>
<p>The Unitarian church was founded in 1866 and built on Main Street in Waterville. By 1927, it was having a hard time financially, and the two churches talked of merging. The situation worsened by 1936 to the point where the Unitarians decided to close their church. In 1952, the two churches, along with the Church of the Good Shepherd in Fairfield, united to form the Universalist Unitarian Church of Waterville.</p><br>
<p>The classic bell tower whose clock was once considered the town clock was in serious danger of collapsing by 2008. The tower was taken down and sold at auction along with the clock and lightning rod. A new bell tower was constructed in time for the Christmas Eve service that year.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The church stands facing south toward a small triangular park formed by the junction of Silver and Elm Streets, south of downtown Waterville. It is a single-story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof, clapboard siding, and granite foundation. Rising from the roof is a two-stage square tower, with a clock in the first stage, an open octagonal belfry as the second, and a bowed octagonal roof above. The openings in the belfry have Gothic pointed arches, a detail repeated in fans above some of the building&#39;s windows, and in the gable front of the facade.</p><br>
<p>Wing Family Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Wayne, Maine. Established as a family cemetery in 1867, it is one of the state&#39;s most distinctive small cemeteries, organized with concentric circles around a central monument. The cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.</p><br>
<h2>Location</h2><br>
<p>The Wing Family Cemetery is located in a rural setting north of Wayne&#39;s village center, on the east side of Pond Road near Pocasset Lake. It occupies a square parcel, which is ringed by a cut granite stone wall. A line of maple trees separates the street from the westernmost wall.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Wing "Ring" Cemetery was founded by the descendants of the seven sons of Simeon Wing & Mary Allen. The seven sons (Thomas, Ebenezer, Dr. Moses, Aaron, Allen, Simeon & William) emigrated from Sandwich (Pocasset, now Bourne), Barnstable Co., Massachusetts to what was originally called New Sandwich at the end of the Revolutionary War. The brothers settled around the body of water originally called Wing Pond, but now known as Lake Pocasset.</p><br>
<p>Originally, the family had a traditional "burying place" on the homestead of the youngest son, William (as the parents lived with William for the last years of their lives). In 1867, descendants of the brothers formed a Wing Cemetery Corporation for the purpose of creating a new memorial to their deceased members. They leveled off the top of a hill, dug down several feet to remove all of the larger rocks, and graded the lot. Alonzo Wing of Wisconsin drafted the "ringed" formation, aligning the stones in concentric circles around a central obelisk. James Norris Wing learned the trade of stone-cutting and supervised the creation of curved granite footings to form the base of the concentric circles (upon which the gravestones would be placed).</p><br>
<p>The process took several years, and hundreds of dollars (which was privately financed by the Cemetery Corporation through donations from family members). The cemetery was finally completed about 1871.</p><br>
<p>The Finnish Congregational Church and Parsonage is a historic church at 172 St. George Road in South Thomaston, Maine. Built in 1921, with the parsonage  added about 1925, the church represents one of the earliest formal expressions of Finnish-American culture in the region. The buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Finnish Congregational Church stands on the east side of St. George Road (Maine State Route 131), about 1 mi south of its junction with United States Route 1 in the main village of Thomaston. The church faces west, and is set behind a semicircular drive, with the former parsonage house just to its right (south). The church is a basically vernacular wood frame structure, with a gabled roof and clapboard siding. A square tower projects half its size from the center of the front, with the main double-door entrance at its base, a narrow sash window above, and a pyramidal second stage topped by a shallow pyramidal roof. An addition extends to the rear of the main body, which houses a kitchen and dining area. The former parsonage is a smaller single-story wood frame building, three bays wide, with a full-width hip-roofed porch across the front.</p><br>
<p>Finnish immigration into Knox County appears to have begun in the 1890s, and is one of two places (the other being Oxford County) where Finns clustered in these early years. The earliest documented land ownership by Finns in the county is 1896. The Finnish Congregation was formally organized in 1921, earlier services having taken place at a local school. The church was completed later that year, and the parsonage was added about 1925. It was the first religious building constructed for the Finnish community in the state.</p><br>
<p>Finnish Church S. Thomaston ME-3.jpgSide of the church</p><br>
<p>Finnish Church S. Thomaston ME-2.jpgEntrance to the church</p><br>
<p>The Union Church of Vinalhaven is a historic church on East Main Street in the center of Vinalhaven, Maine. Built in 1899, it is a high quality example of Shingle style architecture, designed by one of its major promoters, John Calvin Stevens. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Union Church stands on the south side of East Main Street in downtown Vinalhaven, just east of its junction with Atlantic Avenue. The church is a single-story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof and shingled exterior. The long side of the building faces the street, with a square tower projecting at the right end. The tower rises to a louvered belfry and a pyramidal roof, whose corners have projecting hip sections over the piers that flank the belfry louvers. The main entrance is at the base of the tower, sheltered by a gabled porch. A wide wall dormer is set in the center of that facade, with a three-part Gothic window. The west-facing gable end is also adorned with a large Gothic window, with small oriel windows on either side.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1899 by Otto Nelson to a design by Maine&#39;s best-known architect of the turn of the 20th century, John Calvin Stevens. Stevens was a major promoter of the Shingle style, and this church is an excellent example of the style. It was built to replace an earlier structure, built in 1860 when Vinalhaven was a major granite quarrying and shipping center.</p><br>
<p>The Alna Meetinghouse is a historic meeting house on Maine State Route 218 in Alna Center, Maine. Built in 1789, it is one of the oldest churches in the state, with a virtually intact interior. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The Alna Meetinghouse is located on the west side of Maine 218, a short way north of Alna Cemetery and about 1.3 mi south of the road&#39;s Sheepscot River crossing. It is set close to the road, and faces south. The building is a two-and-a-half story wooden structure, with a side gable roof and exterior of clapboards and wooden shingles. It has no tower, and a gable-roofed entry vestibule and stairhouse projects from the center of the five-bay front facade. The entrance is flanked by pilasters and topped by an entablature and cornice. Balconies surround three sides of the interior and are supported by hand-hewn pillars. The original box pews are still in place, as is the original pulpit with a sounding board hung from the ceiling. The roof is supported by massive hand-hewn beams, measuring 14 to 18 in in thickness.</p><br>
<p>The area that is now Alna was originally incorporated as part of a larger township called Pownalborough (now Dresden) in 1760. Organized as that town&#39;s North Precinct, it was incorporated as New Milford in 1794 and renamed Alna in 1811. This church was built in 1789, and saw active use until 1876.</p><br>
<p>The Congregational Church of Edgecomb, now the Edgecomb Community Church, is a historic church at 15 Cross Point Road in North Edgecomb, Maine. Built in 1877, it is the rural community&#39;s finest example of 19th-century religious architecture, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. The congregation, established about 1783, is affiliated with the United Church of Christ; the pastor is the Rev. Katherine E. Pinkham.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Congregationla Church of Edgecomb is located in northern Edgecomb, on the west side of Cross Point Road, a short way south of its junction with Eddy Road. It is a single-story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof, clapboarded exterior, and a brick foundation. A two-stage tower projects from the east-facing front. It has a tall first stage, which has the main entrance at the base, and a Palladian-style window with rounded-arch heads above, and molded corner boards rising to a bracketed cornice. The second stage is an open belfry, with rounded-arch openings, and slatted corner posts. The tower is topped by an octagonal steeple. The tower is flanked by narrow round-arch windows, and there are wider round-arch windows on the sides of the building. The interior retains original woodwork and other features, including oil-lamp chandeliers that have been converted to electric lighting.</p><br>
<p>The earliest recorded information about the Edgecomb churchs congregation dates to 1783. It is documented as meeting in the communitys town hall until about the time of the American Civil War, and then in a school, until this building was completed in 1881. The use of rounded arch windows is a departure from similar surviving rural churches of the period in Maine.</p><br>
<p>Damariscotta Baptist Church is a historic church at 4 Bristol Road in Damariscotta, Maine. Built in 1843-47 and restyled in 1891, it is a well-preserved example of Greek Revival and Colonial Revival architecture. The building also played a role in the formation of the town, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Damariscotta Baptist Church stands at the eastern end of the town&#39;s Main Street commercial district, at the southeast corner of the junction of Main Street (Business Route 1) and Bristol Road (Maine State Route 129). The location is prominently visible from a significant portion of Main Street, and the church is set on a low rise. It is a single-story wood frame structure, with a gable roof, flushboarded front facade, and clapboarded sides and rear. A multi-stage square tower rises above the front, with a clock set in the first stage, a belfry in the second, with a steeple above. The front is dominated by a gabled Greek Revival temple front, with a full pediment and entablature supported by six Ionic columns. Windows on the sides are multi-pane stained glass, with a central round-arch element.</p><br>
<p>The church congregation was organized in 1819 as the Second Baptist Church in Nobleboro. When Damariscotta was set off from Nobleboro in 1848, its name was formally changed to Damariscotta Baptist Church, and the town&#39;s first organizational meeting was held in this building. It was constructed between 1843 and 1847, with stylistic evidence suggesting it was designed by Brunswick architect Samuel Melcher. Originally fitted with lancet-arched windows in the Gothic style, alterations in 1891 included the conversion of these windows to the rounded windows now found on the building.</p><br>
<p>The German Church and Cemetery, also known as the Old German Meeting House, is a historic German Lutheran church and cemetery at 235 Bremen Road  in Waldoboro, Maine. Built in 1772, it is a well-preserved 18th-century church, which played an important role in the lives of the area&#39;s early German immigrants, and in the establishment of the town of Waldoboro. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Waldoboro was settled by four shiploads of German immigrants between 1740 and 1753 and other settlers who came from earlier settlements on the Atlantic coast. The thirty six and one-half by forty five and one-half foot church building was framed and enclosed in 1772 near the ferry landing on the east side of the Medomak River replacing their first church building, a log building at Meeting House Cove, which was dedicated in 1763. The interior remained unfinished with the worshipers sitting on "rude benches". In the winter of 1795 the building was disassembled and moved across the river to its present location and the interior was completed and the building painted by 1804. The floor plan is a common layout for church and meeting-house buildings of the period of an entrance at the opposite end from the pulpit, three aisles serving box pews and a large gallery with mostly box pews. Initially entrance is made into a small porch containing three exterior doors and two stairways. The box pews remain unpainted, the walls and woodwork above the pews painted green. The building is heated with wood stoves and has never had electric service. The pulpit stands high above the floor with a sounding board above.</p><br>
<p>The first minister was John Ulmer. From 1795 to 1811 served Rev. Frederick Augustus Rodolphus Benedectus Ritz (Retz). Next Rev. J. W. Starman served from 1812 to 1854 and instituted the first English language sermons.</p><br>
<p>The first town meeting in Waldoboro was held in this meeting house in 1773 and the centennial celebration of Waldoboro&#39;s incorporation included a sermon given in this building in 1873. One service per year is still conducted.</p><br>
<p>The oldest grave stone in the cemetery is for Fannie Miller, who died Aug. 22, 1797. There are, however, older graves without stones.</p><br>
<p>The building and cemetery were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The building and grounds are maintained by the German Protestant Society, organized April 3, 1800.</p><br>
<p>The Loudville Church is a historic non-denominational church building on Louds Island, an unincorporated territory of Lincoln County, Maine that is now home to summer residences. The church was built in 1913, using materials from a schoolhouse built in 1908 on Malaga Island. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>Louds Island is located on the west side of Muscongus Bay, off the coast of Bristol near the village of Round Pond. The island was settled in the 1750s, and had a population of about 150 in 1798. By the mid-19th century it had lost most of its permanent population, and was reduced to a summer colony. The island had no church until this one was built in 1913. It is an L-shaped wood frame structure, 1-1/2 stories in height, with a cross-gabled roof, shingled exterior, and concrete foundation. A three-story tower rises at the crook of the L, topped by a pyramidal roof with flared eaves. It has modest Gothic stylistic elements, including a three-part arched window in one of the gabled sides.</p><br>
<p>The buildings story begins on Malaga Island, located in Maines Casco Bay. During the 19th century, Malaga was the site of an impoverished settlement of predominantly African-Americans, who were mainly living of the land and sea. In 1908, well-meaning wealthy social reformers built a school on the island in a bid to improve the condition of the children of the residents. The Malaga Island community was forcibly evacuated in 1911, in what has later been described as an act of cultural imperialism. The school was given by its builders to the Maine Seacoast Missionary Society, which raised the funds needed to move it to Louds Island. Its lumber was used to build this church, to a design by Milton Stratton, a Maine architect active in the Mount Desert Island area. The building is maintained by the Louds Island Association, which holds meetings and summer religious services there.</p><br>
<p>The Second Congregational Church is a historic church on River Street in Newcastle, Maine. Built in 1848, it is one of Mid Coast Maine&#39;s finest examples of brick Gothic Revival architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The congregation, established in 1843, is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Second Congregational Church of Newcastle stands in the town center, just south of the junction of United States Route 1 Business and Maine State Route 215. It is a single-story brick building with wooden trim and a gable roof. Projecting from the center of the main facade is a tower, which houses the main entrance at the base. The tower and building corners are articulated by pilasters; the tower has Gothic arched windows on the front, and rises to a wooden crenellation that surrounds an open wood-frame belfry. The belfry also has corner pilasters, and its openings are also arched in the Gothic style. The belfry is topped by corner pinnacles joined by a decorative swag-like rail.</p><br>
<p>The first congregation to be established in what is now Newcastle was founded in the village of Sheepscot in 1797. The second congregation was organized in 1843 to meet the needs of the growing Damariscotta community (just across the Damariscotta River), and the present church was built for it in 1849. The church is a highly visible landmark, especially for travelers arriving by boat on the river.</p><br>
<p>St. Andrew&#39;s Church is a historic Episcopal church at 11 Glidden Street in Newcastle, Maine. Built in 1883, it was the first example of cottage Gothic Revival church in the country, and the first US design of English architect Henry Vaughan, a major proponent of the style. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>St. Andrews stands in the Newcastles main village, on the east side of Glidden Street, just north of United States Route 1 and west of the Damariscotta River. It is a single-story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof and a brick foundation. The walls are finished in half-timbered stucco, and the roof is covered by wooden shingles. A single-stage tower rises near the back end, topped by a pyramidal roof with flared edges. Projecting from the main rectangle in line with the tower are shed-roof extensions of the main roof. The main entrance is set at one end of a long side wall, sheltered by a gabled portico.</p><br>
<p>The church was designed by Henry Vaughan and built in 1883. Vaughan had come to the United States in 1881, and this was his first of many ecclesiastical works completed after his arrival. Vaughan went on the become a leading proponent of the Gothic Revival in the United States, contributing to the design of the Washington National Cathedral and other landmarks. This church was built on land donated by the Glidden family, and was built by William Glidden. When Newcastle&#39;s downtown was devastated by fire in 1908, the church parish house was used to temporarily house the Newcastle National Bank.</p><br>
<p>St. Denis Catholic Church is a historic Roman Catholic church at 298 Grand Army Road  in North Whitefield, Maine. Built 1833-38, it is the third oldest Catholic church in New England. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The St. Denis Church complex stands at in a rural setting, at a bend in SR 126 west of North Whitefield, just east of its junction with Cooper Road. The complex includes two buildings, both of brick: the church itself, located on the south side of the road, and the parish hall, on the north side. The church is a single-story structure, with a gabled roof and a square tower attached to the left side. The front facade is three bays wide, articulated by pilasters, with entrances set below square gallery-level windows. The tower is built in the Italian campanile style, with corner pilasters rises to clock stage and then an open belfry with paired round-arch openings on each side. It is topped by a flat roof. The church interior is decorated in an early version of the Gothic Revival.</p><br>
<p>The parish was established in 1818 as "St. Dennis" parish, and originally met in a wood-frame structure built on this site. Between 1833 and 1838, the main portion of the present brick building was built around that building. The parish was renamed with a single "n" in 1850. The tower was added in 1861, and the stained glass windows also date from later in the 19th century. The parish hall was built in 1871. The church underwent a major restoration in 1997.</p><br>
<p>St. John&#39;s Episcopal Church is a historic church on the south side of Maine State Route 27 at Blinn Hill Road in Dresden Mills, Maine. Built in 1832, it is a distinctive architectural blend of Federal, Greek Revival and Gothic Revival styling. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>St. John&#39;s Episcopal Church stands in the village of Dresden Mills, just east of the Dresden town offices on the south side of SR 27. It is a single-story wood-frame structure, with a gabled roof, clapboard siding, and granite foundation. A two-stage square tower rises from the roof, with a belfry in the second stage that has louvered round-arch openings, and pinnacled corners joined by a balustrade above. The front facade is symmetrical, with pilasters at the corners and on either side of the two entrances, rising to an entablature and fully pedimented gable. The doorways are set in otherwise simple openings, but are topped by Federal style round-arch louvered windows. Similar windows, taller in height, rise on the sides. The interior features an unusual mix of Federal and Gothic styling, with original box pews and a Romanesque screen separating the sanctuary from the vestry.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1832 as a union church, serving four congregations, and was formally dedicated the following year. It was built as a virtual duplicate of the Pittston Congregational Church, differing now due to subsequent alterations to each building. In 1852 it was dedicated exclusively for use by the Episcopal congregation, which named in St. John&#39;s, after an earlier church in Dresden that has not survived.</p><br>
<p>St. Patrick&#39;s Catholic Church is a historic church at 380 Academy Hill Road in Newcastle, Maine. Built in 1807, it is the oldest surviving Roman Catholic church building in New England. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>St. Patrick&#39;s Catholic Church stands in a rural setting a short way south of the village of Damariscotta Mills, on the west side of Academy Hill Road just south of its junction with Maine State Route 215. It is a rectangular brick building, bearing some stylistic resemblance to churches of the period in Virginia. It has a gabled roof, and a projecting square tower with the main entrance at its base, set in a segmented-arch opening. The next stage of the tower has a round window, with a belfry at the next stage that has round-arch louvered openings. A projecting cornice separates the belfry from the two-stage steeple, which is topped by a cross. Historic photos of the church show it with a hipped roof over the belfry instead of a steeple. The interior of the church retains original fixtures, including floors, pews, and altar.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1807 and consecrated in 1808. Its construction was made possible by the efforts of two prominent local businessmnen, both Irish immigrants. The parish was organized in 1796 by James Kavanagh and Matthew Cottrill, and first met without a priest in a wood-frame chapel. Kavanagh and Cottrill paid for construction of this edifice, which is built with brick made across the Damariscotta River and hauled across the frozen river in winter. Lime for its mortar was imported from Ireland. The church&#39;s design is attributed to Nicholas Codd, who also built the Gov. Edward Kavanaugh House in Damariscotta Mills and the Matthew Cottrill House in Damariscotta. It is the oldest surviving Roman Catholic church in New England.</p><br>
<p>The Union Church, also known locally as the Little Brown Church, is a historic church on Maine State Route 32 in Round Pond, a village of Bristol, Maine. Built in 1853, it is a distinctive local example of Carpenter Gothic architecture, and one of the few of this type of church in the entire state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Union Church stands on the east side of SR 32 in the village of Round Pond, a short way south of its junction with Back Shore Road. It is a single-story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof, vertical board siding, and a granite foundation. The roof is topped by a two-stage square tower, whose upper stage houses a belfry with pointed-arch louvered openings. The tower is capped by a pyramidal roof with a finial at its peak. Windows are sash, set in pointed-arch openings with multi-light fixed windows in the arch, and a molded hood above. The main entrance, at the center of the west-facing front facade, is set in a similar opening. The building interior retains some original features, but much of it dates to a turn-of-the-20th-century renovation.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1853 for what was a mixed congregation, and was eventually also used by Baptist and Seventh-day Adventist congregations in the 19th century. It fell into disuse during the American Civil War, and was again revived as a non-denominational summer church in the 1870s. Although other Gothic Revival churches exist in the state, there are few that are built on a modest scale out of wood, and the others that survive in good condition were architect designed.</p><br>
<p>Westport Town Hall is the current town hall of Westport, Maine. It is located on Main Road  in a former Congregational church built in 1794. The building, used as the town hall since 1885, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 as Union Meeting House, .</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>Westport Town Hall stands on the west side of SR 144, in the dispersed rural village center of Westport. It is located south of the Westport Community Church and the Squire Tarbox House. It is a single-story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof, clapboarded exterior, and granite foundation. Its street-facing front facade is symmetrical, with a central double door flanked by sash windows, with three sash windows at the balcony level, and a single sash window near the peak of the gable. All windows save the last, and the doorway, are topped by semi-circular fans, a detail that is continued to windows on the building sides. The interior has a small vestibule, with kitchen facilities and stairs leading to the balcony, with the main meeting space occupying the remainder of the building. A raised stage is located at the far end, one end partly closed off the provide additional office space. Due to extensive alterations, only a small number of interior features remain from the period of construction, including balcony panels and railings.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in the early 1790s as a parish church for the Jeremysquam district of Edgecomb, which was later separated as Westport. It was used principally by Free Will Baptists, and in 1828, when Westport was incorporated, it also served as town hall for a few years. Town meetings were then held in a district school, and the Free Will Baptists shared the building for a time with a Methodist congregation. The Baptists apparently disbanded in 1864, and the Methodist moved to the Westport Community Church, leaving the building vacant until 1885, when it was acquired by the town. In addition to its municipal functions, the building has served as a social venue and hosted the local Grange organization. The building is one of a small number of surviving Federal period church buildings in the state.</p><br>
<p>The Walpole Meetinghouse is a historic church on Walpole Meeting House Road in the Walpole area of South Bristol, Maine. Built in 1772, it is a well-preserved and little-altered example of a late colonial church in coastal Maine, and one of the oldest actively used churches in the state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. It is maintained by a non-profit organization, and is still used occasionally for summer services.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Walpole Meetinghouse stands on the north side of Walpole Meeting House Road, just east of Maine State Route 129. It is a two-story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof and an original wooden shingle exterior, fastened with hand-cut nails. It has entrances on three sides, with the main entrance on the long south facade. It is a double door flanked by pilasters and topped by a pedimented gable. Similar details are also found on the western entrance, while the eastern one has a modest surround. The doors all enter the single main chamber, where the ground floor is dominated by a series of box pews and the elevated pulpit on the north wall, backed by a large wooden soundboard supported by fluted wooden pilasters that have a marbleized paint finish. Stairs to the gallery are located in the front corners.</p><br>
<p>The meetinghouse was built in 1772, and originally housed a predominantly Presbyterian congregation of Scottish immigrants. Because the presbytery was based far away in Boston, the congregation eventual became Congregationalist. During major restorative work in the late 19th century, the original exterior shingling was found to be in good condition, and was not replaced.</p><br>
<p>The Westport Community Church, also known historically as Temperance Hall and the Music Hall, is a historic church on Main Road  in Westport, Maine. Probably built in the 1830s, and moved to its present location in 1864, it is a fine local example of Greek Revival architecture. It is now owned by a local non-profit organization, used for events and functions in the summertime. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Westport Community Church stands on the west side of Main Road, near the geographic center of Westport Island. It is located just north of Westport Town Hall and south of the Squire Tarbox House. It is a modest 1-1/2 story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof, clapboarded exterior, and granite foundation. Its front facade is three bays wide, with a pair of entrances flanking a sash window, beneath an entablature and fully pedimented gable. The entrances are topped by transom windows and corniced entablatures, and the main gable has a sash window at its center, with a triangular louver at the peak of the gable. Windows on the front and sides are topped by shallow projecting lintels. The entrances lead into separate vestibules, which open into an anteroom leading to the main space, which occupies most of the building. It has rows of grain-painted bench pews, and is lit by a chandelier and wall sconces fueled by oil.</p><br>
<p>The exact circumstances of the buildings construction and early use are not known. It originally stood in a small settlement at McCartys Cove, and was probably built by James McCarty, a prominent ships captain. Its construction date is ascribed to the 1830s, based on architectural and stylistic evidence. Early deeds refer to it as a "music hall&quot it was moved to its present site in 1864 and sold to a Methodist congregation. That congregation held services here until 1950. It has been owned and maintained by a local community group since. It is among Westports best examples of Greek Revival architecture, many others having been destroyed in a major fire in 1918.</p><br>
<p>The Wiscasset Jail and Museum is a historic jail on at 133 Federal Street  in Wiscasset, Maine. Built in 1811, it is one Maines oldest surviving jail buildings, serving as the states first penitentiary between 1820 and 1824. It is now a museum operate by the Lincoln County Historical Society as the 1811 Lincoln County Museum and Old Jail. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The former Wiscasset Jail is located north of Wiscassets village center, on the east side of Federal Street, overlooking the Sheepscot River. The building has two distinct sections, one for the jail and the other for the keepers residence. The portion housing the cells is built out of granite and is three stories in height. The interior consists of a central hall on each floor providing access to cells lining the long walls; the interior walls and floors are also granite. Eleven of the twelve cells have heavily barred window openings; the twelfth, which was used for solitary confinement, has no window. The third floor housed "apartments" used as debtors cells and a work room. The keepers quarters, attached to one of the gabled short walls, are a two-story brick structure, with a five bay facade and central entrance typical of Federal period architecture.</p><br>
<p>Lincoln County was established in 1760, and had two different jails for the short-term retention of prisoners. The present building was authorized by the county in 1807, and construnction lasted from 1809 to 1811. The original keepers house was destroyed by fire, and the present brick house was built in 1837. It was until 1824 the only substantial place of incarceration in what was first the District of Maine of Massachusetts, and after 1820 the state of Maine. It remained in active use until 1953, and was sold to the Lincoln County Historical Society the following year. It has served as the societys headquarters and as a museum property since then.</p><br>
<p>The Pownalborough Courthouse is a historic court house at 23 Courthouse Road in Dresden, Maine, USA. Built in the early 1760s, it was the first county courthouse for Lincoln County, which was established in 1760. It is the only surviving courthouse in the state of Maine that was built during the colonial period, and is now a museum owned and operated by the Lincoln County Historical Society. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Pownalborough Courthouse stands in what is now a rural area of western Dresden, overlooking the Kennebec River just to the west. It stands on grounds that were at the time of its construction the site of Fort Shirley, one of the first inland forts built by the British on the river. The courthouse has a roughly square three-story main block, framed in wood, covered by a hip roof, and clad in wooden clapboards. The main facade is five bays wide, with a center entrance flanked by pilasters and topped by an entablature and cornice. A single-story wing extends to one side. The interior has seen a variety of alterations, but retains original wide flooring. It has never been fitted with electricity or modern plumbing.</p><br>
<p>Lincoln County was separated from York County, Massachusetts (Maine then being part of Massachusetts) in 1760. It was named for Governor Thomas Pownall, and the town of Pownalborough (encompassing modern Dresden, Alna, Jefferson, and Wiscasset) was named in his honor. The proprietors who owned the land voted to build a courthouse that year, to be located on the grounds of Fort Shirley, which had been built in 1752 as a defense against Native American attacks. The forts importance had declined since the construction of Fort Western further upriver, and it was thought that its facilities could be used to house a jail and keepers quarters. Construction began on the courthouse in 1761, and the countys first court session was held in the unfinished building later that year. The building was not completed until 1769. In addition to housing the court facilities, the building also served as a tavern, post office, meeting house, and had living quarters on the third floor. Those quarters were occupied by the fort commander, Major Samuel Goodwin, and were continuously occupied by his descendants into the 1930s. The local historical society purchased the 56 acre property from Goodwins descendants in 1954. It is now open seasonally (Memorial Day to Columbus Day) as a museum dedicated to local history; admission is charged.</p><br>
<p>The Bell Hill Meetinghouse is a historic church building at 191 Bell Hill Road in Otisfield, Maine. The building is significant as an excellent example of transitional Federal-Greek Revival architecture, and as the work of local master builder Nathan Nutting, Jr. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Bell Hill Meetinghouse is located at the top of Bell Hill in Otisfield, Maine, on the east side of Bell Hill Road. It is a single story rectangular wood-frame structure, with a projecting center bay on the main (west-facing) facade, and a square bell tower that rises from the central ridge near the western end of the gable roof. The projecting bay houses two entry doors, each topped by a louvered fan, with small square sash windows above each, also topped by louvered fans. The bay, like the main facade, has a fully enclosed triangular pediment. The central bay is flanked by tall twelve-over-twelve windows, also topped by louvered fans. These windows are matched by those that line the long sides (north and south) of the building. All windows have wooden shutters, and the building is clad in vinyl siding, although its original trim has been carefully preserved.</p><br>
<p>The tower&#39;s first stage is square, with no significant decoration. Above this is an open section with square posts at the corners which are decorated with paired pilasters. A low balcony railing stands between the posts on all four sides, and the church bell hangs in the opening. The posts support an entablature and an ogeed cornice. Above this is a dome which is surrounded by a low, narrow balustrade set between small columns at the corners. The dome is topped by a copper spire.</p><br>
<p>The meetinghouse was built in 1838-39 by Nathan Nutting, Jr., a local resident who was raised on the family farm but received training in woodwork in Boston, Massachusetts, before returning to Otisfield. Most of his work in the area was residential, the most notable being the family home, built in 1824. In the 1830s he received commissions to build churches in at least six area communities. This church was built to replace the towns 18th-century meetinghouse, which was severely damaged by wind and rain while this one was under construction. It is possible that this damage prompted the town to request Nuttings rapid construction of this building, using a plan he had previously used to build a church in Waterford.</p><br>
<p>The church was used regularly for services until about 1887, and was revived for annual services in 1913. The building is now owned by the Bell Hill Meetinghouse Association, and is used for occasional services and functions such as weddings.</p><br>
<p>The Center Meeting House and Common is a historic meeting house at 476 Main Street in Oxford, Maine. The town of Oxford was incorporated in 1829, and the common was laid out soon thereafter. The meeting house, which served as a home for a diversity of religious congregations as well as town meetings, was built in 1830. Significant locally for their cultural and political history, they were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The meeting house is a rectangular wood frame structure with a gable roof, resting on a granite block foundation. It stands on the common, a parcel of land now reduced to 1.35 acre from its original 3, near the junction of Maine State Routes 26 and 121. The common is a large grassy area fringed at the non-street edges with mature trees.</p><br>
<p>The meeting house is sheathed in clapboards, and faces east. Its exterior appearance is fairly typical for Federal styles meeting houses of the period, except that its windows have Gothic Revival lancet point arches. The main facade is symmetrically arranged, with a pair of entry doors, topped by louvered lancet arches with moulded surrounds. There are two sash windows between the doors, and two above, all topped by the similar lancet arches and surrounds. A modern ramp provides handicapped access to the entrances. The side facades have four uniformly-placed windows that are larger (12-over-12 as opposed to 8-over-8) than those on the main facade. The rear facade has a single smaller window, and a modern concrete block chimney.</p><br>
<p>The entrances lead into a vestibule area spanning the width of the building. A staircase in the northeast corner leads to a balcony space overlooking the nave. The nave takes up most of the building, and is generally divided into three sections of box pews, separated by aisles leading from the vestibule to the pulpit area. The pews all appear to be original, retaining elements such as doors, latches, and even some painted finish. The pulpit area is a flat open space at the rear of the building, which appears to once have had a raised platform.</p><br>
<p>Originally part of Hebron, Oxford was incorporated in February 1829. Andrew Craigie, owner of a local mill, offered to fund the construction of the meeting house and donated 3 acre of land for the common and cemetery (the latter no longer part of this property). The building was used by Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists, and Free Will Baptists in rotation, as well as by town meetings. It continues to be used for town meetings.</p><br>
<p>The Church of the New Jerusalem, now known as The Fryeburg New Church, is a congregation of The New Church  at 4 Oxford Street in Fryeburg, Maine. The historic church building is a Stick style structure designed by Portland architect, Charles H. Kimball, and built in 1878. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture and building history</h2><br>
<p>The church building is a two-story wood frame structure, set on a narrow side street just off Main Street in Fryeburg center. It has board-and-batten siding, and a gable roof. A two-story tower at the southeast corner of the building provides the main entrance and a belfry, while a smaller engaged tower adorns the other corner of the main facade. The belfry of the main tower is a louvered square, and is topped by a pyramidal roof. The smaller tower is also topped by a pyramidal roof, but the base courses of the roof are flared out. The front-facing gable end of the church is heavily decorated with Stick style applied woodwork, including Gothic lancet-shaped headers over the windows and brackets under the eaves. Many of these details are repeated in the interior decoration, where wood inlay is found in the ceiling, pews, and other furnishings. In addition to the main sanctuary, the building houses a library, kitchen, pantry, and dining area.</p><br>
<p>The building was designed by Portland architect Charles H. Kimball, and is one of his finest ecclesiastical works. It was built for a recently formed Swedenborgian congregation, and was completed in 1897 at a cost of $4,000. It was just the third Swedenborgian church in the state.</p><br>
<p>Deering Memorial United Methodist Church is a historic church at 39 Main Street in South Paris, Maine. Completed in 1911 for a congregation established in 1815, it is the only known work in Maine of the Cleveland, Ohio partnership of Badgley and Nicklas, and one of Oxford County&#39;s finest late Gothic Revival churches. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. Deering Memorial was closed November 18, 2016 as an active house of worship.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Deering Church occupies a prominent lot on the north side of Main Street in South Paris, Maine, the main village of the town of Paris, the county seat of Oxford County. It is a single story cruciform structure with a projecting tower, built of coursed granite ashlar stone, with contrasting cast stone trim elements, and resting on a slightly raised foundation. The cruciform shape is limited in its width by the small lot: the transepts extend only 6 ft to either side of the nave, in a building whose total length is 87 ft. Buttresses reinforce the corners of the building and the tower, and also line the long sides of the nave. The tower has a crenellated parapet at the top, and houses a clock and bell which were also used in the building this one replaced.</p><br>
<p>The church building is the third (all located on the same site) to be used by the Methodist congregation which was established in 1815 under the tutelage of Rev. John Adams of Poland. After deciding in 1909 that a new building was needed, William Deering, son of a local judge, contributed $16,000 to its construction, with the rest of the construction cost raised by subscription. The church was named in memory of Deering&#39;s parents.</p><br>
<p>It is unclear how the Cleveland firm of Badgley and Nicklas was selected to design the building. The building&#39;s interior decorations were executed by Harry Hayman Cochrane, a noted regional muralist whose distinctive work also appears in Cumston Hall, Monmouth, Maine.</p><br>
<p>The First Universalist Society of West Sumner is a historic church at 1114 Main Street in Sumner, Maine. Built in 1867, this small Italianate church is one of the least-altered period churches of rural Maine. Notably, neither electricity nor modern heating have been added to the sanctuary, and the only major modification to the building was the 1913 addition of a kitchen space to the rear of its basement level. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Universalist Church in West Sumner is the second-oldest church building in the village, after the now-deconsecrated Baptist Church, which was built in 1858. It is a small 1-1/2 story wood frame structure, built between June and October 1867. It rests on a granite foundation, and has a corrugated metal roof, which is topped by a squat square belfry with octagonal steeple. The main body of the church is clad in weatherboard, while the belfry section of the tower is flushboarded. The main facade, facing roughly northeast, has a pair of doorways symmetrically placed, with a tall round-arch window centered in between them at a raised level. The window arch has a keystone at the top, a motif repeated in the belfry, which also features round-arch louvered openings.</p><br>
<p>The church is set on a lot that slopes downhill from the road, exposing its full basement. Large windows on the main level illuminate the sanctuary, while smaller windows under some of those provide lighting into the basement space, which houses the vestry and meeting spaces. A small bumpout on the southeast side of the building houses a modern bathroom, and a shed-roof addition, built in 1913, extends the basement to the rear and houses a kitchen.</p><br>
<p>The main entrances provide access to vestibule areas, which are separated from the sanctuary by doors. The eastern vestibule has a hatch in the floor which provides access to the basement (which is otherwise only accessible from an outside doorway on the southeast side). The sanctuary is roughly square, with rows of bench pews divided by three aisles. At the northwest side of the sanctuary is a raised platform with a podium, settee, and chairs. Illumination is provided to the space by kerosene-fueled wall sconce fixtures, and by two ornate brass chandeliers with kerosene lamps covered by frosted globes. Heat is provided by a pair of wood stoves on the north side of the room.</p><br>
<p>In addition to the church building, a period horse shed also stands on the property, which appears to date to the period of the church building&#39;s construction. Located south of the main building, it has a saltbox shape, and is accessed by a single barn door in the northeast wall.</p><br>
<p>The Lovell Village Church is a historic church on Church Street in Lovell, Maine. It was built, and probably designed by, Ammi Cutter, a brickworker of some renown in the interior of western Maine. Completed in 1851, it is an architecturally significant example of Greek Revival. Its construction was occasioned by a slavery-related split in the local congregation. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Lovell Village Church is a 1-1/2 story brick structure, with a gable roof topped by a wooden tower. The doors and windows have granite lintels and wooden sills. The main facade is three bays in width, with a slightly-recessed centered entrance flanked by sash windows. The corners of the building are marked by brick piers, which rise to a flat entablature. The gable end is fully enclosed, with a dentillated border, and a triangular louver in the center of the tympanum. The tower rises in stages, beginning with a square section finished in clapboards, above which is a stepped-down belfry, which is finished in flushboarding with corner pilasters and a full entablature. Above this is a hexagonal section which is topped by a round dome and weathervane.</p><br>
<p>The Congregational Church was established in Lovell in the early 1800s, and held its services in the town meeting house. A local resident moved to Georgia in 1841, and during his time there, owned slaves. Upon his return to Lovell, the congregation divided on whether he should be readmitted to the fold based on this history. The split resulted in the construction of two new churches in the town, of which this is one. It was built in 1851 by Ammi Cutter, a brick maker and mason whose work was widely known in the region.</p><br>
<p>The Middle Intervale Meeting House and Common  is a historic church at 757 Intervale Road in Bethel, Maine. Built in 1816, this simple wood frame structure served as a meeting house for both religious and civic purposes, and has been little-altered since 1857, when it was given its present Greek Revival features. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The meeting house is a rectangular wood frame structure, sheathed in clapboards, and resting in a granite foundation. It has a low single-stage square tower with a shallow pyramidal roof, with spirelets at its corners. The main facade is unadorned, the gable ends only having short returns. It lacks windows, and has two symmetrically placed identical entrances, which are flanked by pilasters and topped by entablatures. The building corners have paneled pilasters, with an entablature running below the roofline along the sides of the building. Each side elevation has three large windows, which are evenly spaced but set toward the rear of the building. The rear elevation, like the front, has no windows. The building is located at the northeast corner of the common, a 2 acre grassy area.</p><br>
<p>The front entrances lead into a vestibule area, from which doorways lead into the nave, and a stairway leads to a now-closed gallery. The nave is populated with box pews that have Federal style woodwork. The pulpit is located in the southeast corner, framed by a monumental Greek Revival entablature and pilasters. Window and other trim is modest, and the walls and cove ceiling are plastered.</p><br>
<p>The building was built in 1816 to house Baptist and Congregationalist congregations, and to provide a location for town meetings. When built, it apparently had a tall tower with spire, two rows of windows, and the gallery was accessed by an outside staircase located between the two entrances. In 1825 the windows were altered to their present configuration, and the box pews were installed. The building was given its Greek Revival features in 1857, along with the inside gallery staircase and the tower. The building was used by both congregations and the town until about 1857, after which it was used exclusively by the Baptist congregation.</p><br>
<p>The North Waterford Congregational Church is a historic church off ME 35 in North Waterford, Maine. It is a two story wood frame rectangular structure, with a projecting entry and tower section at the front. Built in 1860, is an attractive Italianate building representing a mature work of Thomas Holt, a Maine architect known for his churches and railroad stations. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The North Waterford Church was established in 1860 by congregants of the main Waterford Congregational Church located in Waterford Village who lived in northern Waterford and did not want to travel that distance for services. The church was designed by Thomas Holt, a native of Bethel who designed several other churches in the state, but is more widely known for his railroad architecture. The church was raised in June 1860 and dedicated in December of the same year. It continues to be occupied by the same congregation.</p><br>
<p>The church is set at the high point of a narrow triangular green bounded on its long sides by Five Kezars Road and Irving Green Road. It is a two story wood frame structure set on a granite foundation and sheathed predominantly in wooden clapboards. Projecting from the main (northeast-facing) facade is an entry section which rises to support the tower. This section has double doors at the ground level, accessed via granite steps, with a pair of tall round-arch windows above, and is generally flushboarded. This complex is framed by pilasters and a keystoned arch. Above this is the projecting section is interrupted by a gabled roof, with partial returns and bracketed eaves.</p><br>
<p>The tower is set partially in the projection and partially in the main block. It begins with a square section that continues the projection upward above its gable roof, with slightly projecting end blocks. Above this is the proper first stage of the tower, which features a small round window in the front facade, with projecting corner sections, and a cornice line above. The second stage houses the belfry, with square louvered sections framed by inner and outer pilastered arches, and decorative corner woodwork. Another cornice line, studded with doubled Italianate brackets, separates this stage from the octagonal steeple, weathervane, and spire.</p><br>
<p>The Oxford Congregational Church and Cemetery is a historic church and cemetery in Oxford, Maine, located on the east side of King Street, 0.2 mi north of its junction with Maine State Route 121. Built in 1842-3, the church is architecturally significant as a good local example of Greek Revival and Gothic Revival style, and is artistically significant for a decorative stenciled trompe l&#39;oeil artwork on the ceiling and sanctuary end wall. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The Oxford Congregational Church is a T-shaped wood frame structure, sheathed partially in clapboard and partially in aluminum siding, with gable roofs on both sections of the T. The main sanctuary is fronted by a colonnade of four paneled posts, above which is an enclosed area housing a gallery. The main entrance, centered on this facade, consists of a set of double doors, flanked by sidelight windows with diamond lights. The gallery area has two symmetrical placed sash windows, and pilasters continue the supporting posts up to the fully pedimented gable end. Above the entrance rises a square tower, whose stages have pilastered corners, parapeted edges, and spires at the corners. The second stage, housing the bell, has square louvered openings. The tower is topped by a square steeple stylistically matching the corner spires. The sides of the main block have three tall sash windows. Behind the main block is the top of the T, a crosswise two-story frame section built in 1956.</p><br>
<p>The interior of the main block begins with a vestibule area, from which stairs lead to the gallery on either side, and doorways lead into the nave. The nave has the original wooden box pews with Greek Revival woodwork. The doorways leading to the nave are framed by paneled pilasters with Gothic Revival woodwork. The interior of the nave and sanctuary are most notable for the trompe l&#39;oeil art work, which (needing restoration) is believed to give the appearance of much greater size to the interior. It is believed to have been added c. 1880, during one of the periodic redecorations of the building. Other stenciled artwork is known to have been added in 1913 by Monmouth artist Harry Cochrane, and in 1945 by R. J. Morin.</p><br>
<p>The Oxford congregation was organized in 1826, and originally shared a meeting house with the local Baptist congregation. The growth in size of the latter forced the Congregationalists from those premises in 1840, and they temporarily met in a local schoolhouse until the present building was built in 1842-3. The distinctive colonnaded front is believed to be one of the early examples of this form, which appears in only a few surviving churches in Maine.</p><br>
<p>The Porter Old Meetinghouse is a historic meeting house on Old Meetinghouse Road in Porter, Maine, United States. Built in 1818-24, it is a well-preserved example of a meeting house in rural Maine, serving as a center of local religious and civic activities. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The meetinghouse is a wood frame structure, 2-1/2 stories in height, with a side gable roof and a granite foundation. It is 44.5 ft wide and about 36.5 ft deep, with four bays on each side. The main facade first floor has doorways in the outer bays and windows on the inner bays, with sash windows in all of the remaining bays. There are also two smaller sash windows in the gable ends. The walls are clapboarded, and the roof is corrugated metal. The two doorways, each reached by granite steps, are flanked by pilasters and topped by four-light transom windows, with an entablature above.</p><br>
<p>The interior is essentially a single large chamber with a gallery on three sides. The walls are plaster, much of it original, with trowel marks visible. The main floor is populated with original box pews. The pulpit is not original, having been reconstructed from plans made by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1969, using parts from the original.</p><br>
<p>Main construction of the meetinghouse was completed in 1818-19, although it was not completely finished until 1824. The original congregation was a Freewill Baptist organization led by Reverend Jeremiah Bullock, and were known locally as "Bullockites". The building has also been used for municipal functions. It is presently owned by the Parsonsfield-Porter Historical Society.</p><br>
<p>The Rumford Point Congregational Church is an historic church at the State Route 5 and USA Route 2 junction in Rumford, Maine. Built in 1865, the Greek Revival church building is notable as one of a very small number of 19th-century churches in Maine with original Trompe-l&#39;œil artwork on its walls and ceilings. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The church is located in the historic village of Rumford Point, close to a bridge crossing the Androscoggin River. It is a single-story wood frame structure, with a relatively simple two-stage tower topped by a steeple and weathervane. The main facade is three bays wide, with the entrance at the center, framed by pilasters and a fully pedimented gable, set above decorative panels. The flanking bays, like those on the side walls, have tall sash windows. The first stage of the tower is square, finished in clapboards, while the second stage, which houses the belfry, is flushboarded, and has round-arched louvered openings. The church was built in 1865.</p><br>
<p>The churchs most striking feature is the series of frescoed paintings on its walls and ceilings. Apparently painted by the itinerant artist Jonathan Adams Bartlett, they are among the youngest and rarest such work known in the state from the 19th century. The paintings are a Trompe-lœil depiction of a domed ceiling, with the walls painted to give the illusion of a much larger choir/apse space. The ceiling art has experienced some water damage.</p><br>
<p>The Union Church is a historic church on High Street, north of the center of Buckfield, Maine. Built in 1831-32, it is a well-proportioned Federal-style church with Gothic Revival alterations. It served for a time as Buckfield&#39;s town hall, and is now managed by a local nonprofit organization. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Union Church is located on the east side of High Street, up the hill north from the center of Buckfield. It is a single-story wood frame structure, with a gable roof, granite foundation, and two-stage tower with steeple. The main (south-facing) facade is a symmetrical three bays, with the center projecting section supporting the tower. The side bays house matching entrances, each framed by Federal style pilasters and entablature, with a Gothic-arched window directly above. The center bay has a tall Gothic-arched window, with a gabled pediment at the roofline. Above this rises the tall square first stage of the tower, also with a Gothic-arched window on the front facade. A cornice at the top of this section gives way to an octagonal belfry with arched openings, and then a steeple that begins with a reduced-scale louvered octagonal section. The sides and rear of the church each have three Gothic-arched windows.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1831-32, originally housing several different religious denominations. Its use declined over the course of the 19th century, and it was rescued from decay by Buckfield native John Davis Long, who donated funds to rehabilitate the structure provided the town purchased it for use as a town hall. Long also paid for the bell that now hangs in the tower. The building again fell into decline, and its care was taken over by a local nonprofit, with a major rehabilitation taking place in the late 1970s.</p><br>
