<p>Christ Church is a historic non-denominational church on Christ Church Road in the Dark Harbor district of Islesboro, Maine, USA Since its construction in 1901-02, it has been used for Episcopal services. The building, a well-kept example of Maine&#39;s coastal summer churches of the turn of the 20th century, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>Christ Church is located in southern Islesboro, an island community in Penobscot Bay in central Maine, USA It is set overlooking Pendleton Point Road, the major north-south route on the narrow island, which runs to the east of the building. It is a roughly cruciform structure, its long axis oriented north-south, and is finished in wooden shingles and stucco, with a rubblestone foundation. It is reached from Christ Church Road by a walkway lined by stone walls that passes over an arched stone bridge. The south-facing main facade has a gabled entrance porch supported by square posts with decorative brackets, with a half-timbered gable. The porch eaves have exposed rafter ends, and the porch is flanked by paired diamond-pane windows. Above the porch in the main gable is a grouping of four similar windows. The eastern facade, on the downhill side of the sloped site, has an exposed basement with stone buttresses and arched louvered openings.</p><br>
<p>The Dark Harbor area of Islesboro was developed in the late 19th century as a summer resort area, which, like many of Maine&#39;s other coastal summer resort enclaves, soon had a call for Episcopal religious services. The first such services were held at the Islesboro Inn ballroom in 1891, and a small church was soon built on this site. Its capacity was rapidly exceeded, and the present building, designed by Boston architect Francis R. Allen, was built as a major expansion of that structure in 1901-02. The church is governed by an independent board of trustees, and is formally "open to all".</p><br>
<p>The First Church of Belfast is a historic church at 8 Court Street in Belfast, Maine. The church congregation was founded in 1796, and its present building was built in 1818. The well-preserved Federal style church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, as one of a few churches in the state based closely on the designs of Asher Benjamin. The congregation is affiliated with the United Church of Christ; its current pastors are Dr. Kate Winters and Rev. Joel Kruger.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture and history</h2><br>
<p>The church is set just south of Belfasts central business district, on a large parcel of land bounded on the northeast by Church Street, the southwest by Court Street, and the southeast by Spring Street. It is set facing Church Street, but well back on the lot, with a grassy lawn dotted with trees in front. The building is a two-story gable-roofed wood frame structure, built largely to a plan published by Asher Benjamin in The Country Builders Assistant in 1798. Its front facade has a central projecting section with a gabled top, in which three entrance doors are set. The outer two are identical, with flanking pilasters and entablature above, while the central one is a taller double-leaf door with a similar surround. A tower rises astride the main facade and gable, beginning with a square section housing large clock faces. Above this is an open octagonal belfry housing a Revere bell, with Doric columns supporting the next octagonal stage, which supports the cupola and finial. The lower two stages have low balustrades framing their tops, with urn-topped posts at the corners.</p><br>
<p>Belfast&#39;s Congregationalist church was organized in 1796, the town having first been settled in the 1770s by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. At first sharing the meetinghouse with the Presbyterians, they built the present edifice in 1818. The design and construction were overseen by the master builder Samuel French, but are clearly based on the published work of Asher Benjamin. In 1868 it was remodeled, its original box pews removed, and gas lighting installed. The adjacent parish house was dedicated in 1926.</p><br>
<p>The Free Will Baptist Church and Cemetery is a historic church property on Church Turn Road in North Islesboro, Maine. Built in 1843 and enlarged in the 1890s, the church is a fine example of Greek Revival architecture, and is particularly noted for its well-preserved mid-19th century stenciled artwork, whose quality and level of preservation are among the best in the state. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It is now owned by a local nonprofit organization.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The town of Islesboro occupies an eponymous island in Penobscot Bay, on the central Maine coast. The island is roughly shaped as two lobes joined by a narrow isthmus. The former Free Will Baptist Church property stands near the center of the northern lobe, on the north side of Church Turn Road. The church is surrounded on three sides by the cemetery, which is about 1 acre in size. It is a single-story wood frame structure, with a front-facing gable roof, primarily weatherboard siding, and a granite foundation. Its front facade, facing south, is symmetrical, with a pair of entrances flanking a single sash window. Each entrance is flanked by pilasters and topped by an entablature with cornice. A square tower rises from the ridge just behind the front, with a low first stage, a taller flushboarded belfry stage with round-arch louvered openings, and a simple octagonal spire. To the rear, a two-story cross-gabled vestry section was added in 1894.</p><br>
<p>The church interior has three groups of original wooden pews, with two aisles providing access. The walls are finished in plaster, which has been painted and stenciled. The walls at the back of the sanctuary are particularly noteworthy, with three round-arch panels of artwork flanked by rectangular ones. The outer of these panels are decorated with stenciled rustic motifs, while those in the center have a more Classical inspiration. The rustic themes are continued in bands above the pews and around the walls. While other examples of mid-to-late 19th-century artwork survive in Maine, none employ this type of stencilwork.</p><br>
<p>The Free Will Baptist congregation of Islesboro was organized in 1821, and met for twenty years in private residences, schoolhouses, and other locations. By 1840 the congregation had grown sufficiently to warrant construction of a dedicated space, and the present build was constructed about 1843, probably by a local builder. The artwork, traditionally ascribed to an itinerant French painter in the 1840s, is stylistically more typical of the 1870s. Regular services were held in the church until 1921, after which they took place more sporadically. In 1983 the Society for the Preservation of the Free Will Baptist Church of Islesboro was established, and it now maintains the church and cemetery.</p><br>
<p>The Ebenezer Knowlton House is a historic house on Choate Road in Montville, Maine. Built c. 1827, the property, which includes two period barns, is a well-preserved example of vernacular late Federal period architecture. The property is also notable as the childhood home of Rev. Ebenezer Knowlton, Jr., a Free Will Baptist minister and a trustee of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and Colby College, in Waterville, Maine. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Knowlton House is located in southern Montville, a rural inland community in western Waldo County, Maine. It is set on the northwest side of Choate Road, at a four-way junction where Choate Road becomes Sumner Martin Road, and the crossing road is an old (and now unmaintained) county road. The house is a 1-1/2 story wood frame Cape style structure, five bays wide, with a side gable roof, central chimney, clapboard siding, and stone foundation. The front facade, facing southeast, is symmetrical, with a center entrance that is simply framed, and is topped by a four-light transom window. An ell extends to the right of the main block, with a barn attached to the northeast corner of the ell. A second barn stands across Choate Road. The interior has a fairly typical center-chimney plan, with a narrow entry vestibule leading to a parlor on the left and the original kitchen on the right. The parlor fireplace surround is of particularly fine Federal period woodwork. At the back of the house are three small rooms, and a stair leading to a partially-finished attic level.</p><br>
<p>Rev. Ebenezer Knowlton, Sr., was a native of Pittsfield, New Hampshire, who settled in Montville, the home of his wifes family, in 1827. This house is generally given a construction date of 1827-28, but there is some architectural evidence that it was built in stages, which may have begun earlier, as there are records that Knowlton, an itinerant minister, passed through the area as early as 1812. Knowltons son, also named Ebenezer, was thirteen in 1827, and followed his father into the ministry. He also served one term in the Maine State Legislature, but is most notable as a trustee of Bates College, and Colby College. The younger Ebenezer sold the house to his brother John about 1855; the house remained in the family until 1895.</p><br>
<p>Stockton Springs Community Church, formerly the Stockton Springs Universalist Church, is a historic church at 20 Church Street in Stockton Springs, Maine. Built in 1853, it is a fine example of transitional Greek Revival-Italianate architecture, and is particularly noted for the trompe-l&#39;œil frescoes on its walls. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Stockton Springs Community Church is located in the center of Stockton Springs, on the west side of Church Street, just south of its junction with United States Route 1. It is a single story wood frame structure, with a gable roof and clapboard siding. The building corners are pilastered, and the deep eaves are studded with paired brackets. The main facade is three bays wide, with a central entrance sheltered by a deep gabled pediment. Windows in the flanking bays are four narrow sash, in two-over-two pairs with bracketed cornices above. In the gable there is a small half-round window. The interior condition (like the exterior) is relatively unaltered, with original pews and pulpit. It is dominated by the trompe-l&#39;œil frescoes on its walls, which depict classical motifs, with a triumphal arch over the pulpit, and Greek floral designs on the ceiling.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1853 for a Universalist congregation, and the artwork was executed by Boston-based artist William Lawlor. It is one of four churches in Maine with trompe-l&#39;œil artwork, and is the oldest of those. The church has served as a non-denominational community church since the 1930s.</p><br>
<p>Winterport Congregational Church, originally and once again the Winterport Union Meeting House, is a historic church at 177 Main Street  in Winterport, Maine. Built in 1831, it is a prominent little-altered example of Gothic Revival architecture, designed and built by Calvin Ryder, a well-known regional architect and builder. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Winterport Congregational Church is located in Winterport&#39;s village center, on the west side of Main Street just south of its junction with Elm Street. It is set well back from the street (its parking area is located off Elm Street), with a tree-lined series of stepped terraces giving it a somewhat monumental setting. The building is a modest rectangular single-story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof and granite foundation. The front facade is finished in flushboarding, while the other sides are finished in wooden clapboards. The building corners have pilasters with lancet-arched panels. The front facade has a central Gothic lancet-arched window, flanked by entrances with similar lancet-arch features. A tower rises above the roof gable, with a square base topped by a second section that houses a clock and belfry. Above this rises an octagonal steeple, with pinnaces at the corners of its base.</p><br>
<p>In 1820, five different religious congregations united to organize construction of a church building in Winterport. This building was completed in 1831 as the culmination of this effort. It was designed and built by Calvin Ryder, a prominent local builder and designer. Due to squabbling between the denominations, the building was soon given over to the Congregationalists. The clock was added in 1860, and the interior underwent remodeling at that time. The church has seen only minor changes and repairs since then. Since 1976 it has been owned and maintained by a local non-profit organization.</p><br>
<p>The Lincolnville United Christian Church, formerly the Lincolnville Center Meeting House, is a historic church in Lincolnville Center, Maine. Built in 1820, the main church building is one of the least-altered Federal period churches in the state of Maine, with features reminiscent of earlier colonial-era meeting houses. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The church congregation is affiliated with the United Church of Christ; its current pastor is Rev. Susan Stonestreet.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Lincolnville United Christian Church is located in the rural village center of Lincolnville, on the west side of Searsmont Road (Maine State Route 173), a short way north of its junction with Heal Road. The church is set back from the road, on a property that includes the main church building, a parish hall, and a community building. The main church is a rectangular 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, with a front-facing gable roof, clapboard siding, and a foundation that is partly granite slab, and partly bedrock. The front (east-facing) facade is symmetrical, with a center entrance flanked by pilasters and topped by a Federal style fan and an entablature. Windows are 12-over-12 sash throughout, except the window above the entrance, which is 16-over-12. The interior retains all or most of its original box pews, and has the unusual configuration of a raised pulpit in the front of the building, just behind the vestibule. This configuration made it possible for the entire congregation to see latecomers, and is extremely rare in Maine. The lack of a steeple and the building&#39;s basic form are similar to those of earlier colonial meeting houses, which more typically had the pulpit located on a long wall.</p><br>
<p>The meeting house was built in 1821 as a financial venture by Joshua Lamb, who sought to recoup his costs by the sale of pews. This business endeavour was unsuccessful, and he ended up deeding the property to the congregation. The building has undergone only very modest alterations, including the installation in the early 20th century of a tin roof, and the installation of asphalt shingling on the roof. The parish hall, attached to the rear of the building, provides handicapped access.</p><br>
<p>The former Congregational Church of Medway, also known as the Wonder Grange, is a historic church building on Church Street in Medway, Maine. Built in 1874, it is a well-preserved vernacular interpretation of Italianate style. The privately owned building has most recently been used as a Grange hall. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The former Congregational Church of Medway is located in a residential part of the town&#39;s main village, on the northeast side of Church Street a short way north of its junction with Main Street. It is set on a level lot adjacent to a cemetery. It is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof, clapboard siding, and granite foundation. The roof has a deep eave studded with paired decorative brackets, and is topped by a three-stage square tower with a steep pyramidal roof. The main facade is three bays wide, with windows on the second level and a pair of entrances on the first level, flanking a central projecting bay with sash windows on the front and sides. The entrances and bay are sheltered by a flared hip-roof portico with large brackets flanking either side of each entrance. A round-arch window adorns the center of the front-facing gable.</p><br>
<p>The area that is now Medway was settled by 1820 and incorporated in 1875. Benjamin Fiske, owner of a local hotel and prominent in the towns civic affairs, privately funded the construction of this church, which was built by local builder Mansford Cushman. Fiske gave a deed to the community specifying the buildings use as a church and school, with the property reverting to his family if these uses were discontinued. Both of these uses were eventually moved to other facilities in the town, and Fiske&#39;s descendants in the 20th century leased it to the local Grange chapter.</p><br>
<p>Dexter Universalist Church, or the First Universalist Church of Dexter, is a historic church on Church Street in Dexter, Maine. Built in the 1820s and restyled in the 1860s, it is a distinctive work of Boston, Massachusetts architect Thomas Silloway. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Dexter Universalist Church stands in Dexter&#39;s town center, at the northeast corner of Hall Street and Church Street (Maine State Routes 7 and 23). It is a two story wood frame structure, with mostly clapboard siding and a front-facing gable roof. In front of the main block is a projecting hip-roofed and flush-boarded vestibule area, from which a multi-stage square tower rises to a belfry and steeple. The vestibule is three bays wide, with narrow segmented-arch windows on either side of the entrance, which is set within a large segmented-arch opening at the front of a projecting gable-roofed section with a dentillated cornice. The interior walls and ceiling of the main sanctuary are finished in pressed metal.</p><br>
<p>The main body of the church was built about 1828-29, but most of the building&#39;s styling comes from a major renovation conducted 1867-70 from a design by Boston architect Thomas Silloway. Although Silloway (probably best known for his design of the Vermont State House) was a prolific church designer, this is one of only three relatively unaltered instances of his work left in the state of Maine.</p><br>
<p>The Dixmont Corner Church  is a historic church on United States Route 202 in Dixmont, Maine. Built in 1834-35, it is one of the oldest churches in rural Penobscot County, and one of its earliest examples of Carpenter Gothic architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Dixmont Corner Church is located in the rural village center of Dixmont, on the south side of US 202/Maine State Route 9, east of its junction with Maine State Route 7. It is a single-story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof and clapboard siding. The roof is surmounted by an integrated square belfry, which is topped by a low-pitch hip roof with pinnacles at the corners. The front (north-facing) facade is symmetrical, with a pair of entrances flanking a raised sash window. Each of these features is set under a separate paneled lancet-shaped arch, with lancet-shaped louvers above the doors and windows. This styling is repeated on the side windows, and the louvered openings of the belfry are also lancet-arched. A Federal style fanlight is at the center of the front gable. The interior of the building has an entrance vestibule (now partially subdivided to house offices and other facilities, a second-floor gallery, and a large open chamber with free-standing bench pews. The styling of the (original) woodwork on the balcony and altar rail is predominantly Federal. The walls and ceiling have been finished with Colonial Revival pressed tin.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1834-35 by Rowland Tyler, a local master builder whose only other documented work is the 1812 city hall of Bangor. It is one of Penobscot County&#39;s oldest Gothic churches, following only the brick First Congregational Church in Bangor (1831) and the Orrington Methodist Church (1832). The high quality of its workmanship and its well-proportioned exterior are relative rarities in the rural interior of Maine.</p><br>
<p>The Hammond Street Congregational Church is a historic church on Hammond and High Streets in Bangor, Maine. The church building was built in 1833, and extensively restyled in 1853, resulting in the present handsome Italianate structure. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The congregation, established in 1833, is affiliated with the United Church of Christ; its senior pastor is Rev. Mark Allen Doty.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture and history</h2><br>
<p>The Hammond Street Church is located in central Bangor, on the south side of Hammond Street (United States Route 2 and Maine State Route 100) between High and North High Streets. The building is set facing northwest, its long axis paralleling High Street. It is a two-story brick building, with a projecting pavilion topped by a wooden tower. A three-bay vestibule projects slightly from the pavilion, with narrow doors flanking a larger central one, and a similar configuration of round-arch windows on the second level. The vestible is capped by a dentillated cornice and a central pediment with long returns. The tower has three stages, the first with narrow round-arch window set in a panelled recess, the second with clock faces and angled paneled corners, and then a narrower octagonal stage with round-arch windows on four sides below the spire.</p><br>
<p>The congregation was established in 1833, and in the same year contracted the construction of a brick building with Greek Revival features, including a temple portico and two towers. The cost of the structure was prohibitive, and during construction it was decided to lower its height and shorten its body, resulting in a misshapen building with an oversized portico. In 1853, the congregation retained Towle & Foster, a Boston firm known for their church designs, to prepare an Italianate design that corrected the building&#39;s deficiencies. The present structure, a result of this work, retains only portions of the previous building.</p><br>
<p>Hampden Congregational Church is a historic church at 101 Main Road North in Hampden, Maine. Built in 1835 for a congregation founded in 1817, it exhibits a high-quality blend of Federal, Greek Revival, and Italianate architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. The congregation is affiliated with the United Church of Christ; its current minister is Rev. William Walsh.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Hampden Congregation Church is located near the Hampden village center, on the east side of Main Street North (United States Route 1A and Maine State Route 9). It is a rectangular wood frame structure, with a front-facing gable roof and clapboard siding. The building corners are pilastered, supporting entablatures that run along the sides. The front (west-facing) facade is symmetrically arranged, with a projecting enclosed entry vestibule beneath a round-arch window with flanking pilasters. The vestibule has four Doric columns supporting an entablature and shallow-pitch hip roof, with a double-door entrance at the center. A three-stage square tower rises above the ridge line. The first two stages are quite short, the upper one topped by a broad eave. The belfry rises above, with broad corner boards and round-arch openings with balustrades. The eave above is dentillated, and has paired brackets above the corner boards. A weathervane rises above the low-pitch pyramidal roof.</p><br>
<p>The church congregation was established in 1817, and initially met in the Hampden Academy building under the auspices of the Maine Charity School. Land for a building was donated in 1834, and the present building was constructed in 1835; its designer is unknown. As originally built, the building exhibited a high quality blend of Federal and Greek Revival elements, and is distinguished from its contemporaries by its vestibule; the Italianate tower was probably added in the 1860s. It is possible the tower was designed by Bangor architect Benjamin Deane, who is known to have designed the nearly identical tower atop the Washington County Courthouse in Machias.</p><br>
<p>The Milford Congregational Church is a historic church on Main and Ferry Streets in Milford, Maine. Built 1883-85, this Queen Anne Victorian structure is one of the most architecturally sophisticated buildings in the small town. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Milford Congregational Church is located at the northwest corner of Ferry Street and Main Street (United States Route 2), near the northern edge of the town&#39;s village center. It is a roughly rectangular 1-1/2 story wood frame structure, with a square tower at its southeastern corner. Its exterior is finished in a variety of clapboarding and cut wood shingles typical of the Queen Anne period. A modern addition extends to the west (along Ferry Street). The east facade has a large stained-glass round-arch window, with the entrance set at the base of the tower to the left. The tower has buttress forms on its south side, and a second stage with half-round windows, above which is a belfry stage with paired round-arch openings, topped by a pyramidal roof.</p><br>
<p>The local church was organized in 1880, with services conducted by a pastor from Old Town. Land was acquired for the church in 1883, with construction taking two years due to financial constraints. The architect is unknown; the contractor was Asa T. Wing of Old Town, and the stained glass was provided by David T. Welch of Portland. The present vestry portion of the building was probably built before the rest, and was used prior to the construction of the remainder.</p><br>
<p>North Newport Christian Church is an historic church at the junction of Maine State Route 222 and Pratt Road in North Newport, Maine. Built in 1857, it is a fine example of a transitional Greek Revival-Italianate church in a rural context. It originally housed both Baptist and Congregationalist congregations, but later was used only by the latter, and is now infrequently used. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The North Newport Christian Church is set at the northwest corner of Pratt Road and Mullen Street (Maine SR 222) in northern Newport, about halfway between Corinna and Stetson. It is a single-story wood frame structure, with a front-facing gable roof, clapboard siding, and a stone foundation. The gable ends have returns, and the gables and eaves have extended overhangs with decorative brackets. The building corners are pilastered. The main facade, facing south, is symmetrically arranged, with a pair of entrances, each framed by pilasters and a bracketed cornice on either side of a single window. The gable end is decorated with a large triangular false louver. The interior has small vestibule areas, leading into the main chamber, which has original pews with two aisles, and a raised platform at the far end.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1857 by Abiah Steward, and represents a well-preserved modestly-styled example of transitional architecture in a rural setting. North Newport&#39;s Baptist congregation was established in 1817, and its Christian Church congregation about 1840, both originally meeting in local schoolhouses. In about 1850 the two congregations began discussing building a shared facility, which resulted in the construction of this building (supposedly about midway between their previous meeting places). By 1907 the building was being exclusively by the Christian Church congregation, which met regularly until about 1975. The building is now used only occasionally for services.</p><br>
<p>St. Anne&#39;s Church and Mission Site is a historic religious site on Down Street at the southern end of Indian Island in Old Town, Maine. The site includes a church, dating to about 1830, and a cemetery, established in 1668. The mission, with a history dating to 1668, is one of the oldest Roman Catholic establishments in New England, and the building is one of the oldest Catholic churches in the region. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>St. Annes Church is located on the east side of Down Street, near the southern end of Indian Island, location of the Penobscot Indian Island Reservation. It is a single-story wood frame structure, with a front-facing gable roof and clapboard siding. The building has had a series of significant alterations, having been originally built with a small tower and belfry on its roof, with an entry in the western facade and a fanlight in the gable. Around the turn of the 20th century, this tower was replaced by the more elaborate square tower seen today, which projects in front of the body of the church. The entrance is now at the base of the tower, with the fanlight just above. The towers fourth stage has Palladian windows on each side, and its pyramidal roof is framed by pinnacles at the corners.</p><br>
<p>The Catholic mission to the Penobscot Indians was established in 1688 by Louis-Pierre Thury, a French missionary baptized in Quebec in 1667, with the construction of a church building and establishment of a cemetery. The mission was transferred to the Jesuits in 1702, and headed by Antoine Gaulen until 1732. Until 1792 there was no permanent missionary presence, although traveling missionaries and priests would stop to minister to the Penobscots. Beginning in 1792 missionaries were stationed here in the summer, and it was during the tenure of Rev. John Cheverus (1792–98) that the second church was built on this site. The present church was built during the tenure of Rev. Virgil Barber between 1828 and 1830, and was funded by the state. The parish received a full-time priest in 1926.</p><br>
<p>St. James Episcopal Church is a historic church at Center and Main Streets in the heart of Old Town, Maine. Built in 1892, the church is one of four works in the state designed by the Gothic Revival specialist Henry Vaughan. It is one of Old Town&#39;s few 19th century landmarks, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Its current minister is the Rev. Richard Johnson.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>St. James Episcopal Church is located at the southwestern corner of Main and Center Streets in the very center of Old Town. It is a single-story wood frame structure with Gothic Revival styling. It is roughly rectangular in plan, with a gable roof and wood shingle siding, and rests on a stone foundation that was built for the congregation&#39;s original church in 1852. The tower projects near the western end of the long north side of the building, housing the main entrance at its ground level. The entry consists of double-leaf medieval doors, sheltered by a gabled portico with half-timbering in the gable end. At the second level the tower has a diamond-paned rectangular window, above which the tower transitions to an octagonal shape, with an open belfry whose openings are topped by Gothic tracery. An octagonal steeple caps the tower. A second section projects from near the eastern end of the northern long side. The gabled ends of the church have simple bargeboard decoration. The interior is relatively unaltered, having suffered minor damage in a 1952 fire.</p><br>
<p>St. James Parish was organized in Old Town in 1849, and its first church was built in 1852. This church was built in 1892 to replace that deteriorating structure. It was designed by Henry Vaughan, an English architect whose extensive work in the United States includes a number of significant Gothic Revival structures. This is one of four works in the state of Maine known to be his work; the others are St. Andrews Church in Newcastle, and Hubbard Hall and the Searles Science Center at Bowdoin College in Brunswick.</p><br>
<p>St. Johns Catholic Church is a historic church at 217 York Street in Bangor, Maine. Built in 1855 at the height of the anti-immigrant Know Nothing movement, it stands as a major symbol of the citys Irish-American heritage, and a high quality local example of Gothic Revival architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.</p><br>
<h2>Description</h2><br>
<p>The church is located on the south side of York Street, between Boyd and Newbury Streets, east of Bangors central business district. It is a brick building with a cruciform plan, with a slate roof and a stone foundation. A tower 180 ft in height projects slightly from the front (north) facade, with entrances at the towers center and in the flanking walls, set in Gothic-arched openings. Buttresses reinforce the side walls and building corners.</p><br>
<p>The church interior is divided into a long nave, with transepts housing chapels at the sides. The supporting columns have capitals decorated with cherubim and foliage. The organ is an 1860 E. and G.G. Hook Opus 288 instrument, which was restored in 1981; there are fewer than 55 known three-manual E. & G. G. Hook organs remaining in existence today.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The church was designed by New York City architect Patrick Charles Keely, and was built in 1855-56, during the tenure of Fr. Johannes Bapst. Its construction was done by primarily local Irish laborers during the anti-Irish anti-immigrant Know Nothing movement, which was then at its height. Security had to be posted at the construction site to guard against threats to destroy it.</p><br>
<p>The building today also houses the parish offices of St. Paul the Apostle Parish, which includes the church of St. John, as well as St. Mary&#39;s in Bangor, St. Joseph and St. Theresa of Avila in Brewer, St. Matthew in Hampden, and St. Gabriel in Winterport.</p><br>
<p>Former three-term Bangor Mayor Dennis Soucy founded his credit union, St. John&#39;s Credit Union, in the basement of the church in 1956 to serve its parishioners. Now known as Bangor Federal Credit Union, the credit union currently has more than 14,000 members, as of 2013.</p><br>
<p>The Springfield Congregational Church is a historic church on Maine State Route 6 in Springfield, Maine. Built in 1852, it is Gothic Revival building noted for its elegance and high quality despite its rural setting. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Springfield Congregational Church is set in Springfield&#39;s rural village center, on the north side of Route 6, a short way west of its junction with Maine State Route 169. It is a single-story wood frame structure, with a front-facing gable roof, board-and-batten siding, and a granite foundation. A square three-stage tower, with buttress-like corners, rises at the southeast corner. The center of the main facade has a tripartite Gothic window rising into the main gable, and the main entrance is at the base of the tower, set in a Gothic arch. The second stage of the tower has Gothic windows, and the third has a trefoil design on each face. An open belfry stands above, with posts at the corners that are topped by a pinnacles joined by an ornate railing. The sides of the church have five Gothic arched windows. The interior of the church is noted for open trusswork supporting the roof, although this was at some time enclosed by a suspended ceiling.</p><br>
<p>The town of Springfield, founded in 1830, is set in a rural part of eastern Penobscot County that has never developed beyond a basically agrarian economy. The congregation was established in 1846 and built this church in 1852 for $2500. The congregation has always been small, and was briefly disbanded during the Great Depression, and has also shared a minister with a neighboring congregation in Lincoln. Electricity was introduced into the building in 1946. The building&#39;s architect is unknown.</p><br>
<p>Stetson Union Church, also known as the Stetson Meetinghouse, is a historic church building on Maine State Route 222 in Stetson, Maine. Built in 1843 to a design by Bangor architect Benjamin S. Deane, it is an excellent and well-preserved example of ecclesiastical Greek Revival architecture. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. It is owned by the town.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Stetson Union Church is located at the northeast corner of Village Road (Maine State Route 222) and Wolfboro Road, east of the village center. The single story rectangular wood frame structure is set facing roughly west, toward the junction. The square tower that rises from the western end of the gable roof has two stages, ending in a conical fluted spire. The upper stage has arched windows flanked by Doric pilasters. The main facade has a recessed entrance pavilion, with Doric columns at the front and Ionic pilasters at the rear. The sides of the building have four stained-glass windows, and a chimney rises at the rear.</p><br>
<p>The town of Stetson began as a proprietorship established in 1801 by Amasa Stetson on land he purchased from Leicester Academy of Leicester, Massachusetts. In 1831 he bequeathed the funds to build a church, which resulted in the 1843 construction of this building, to a design by the noted Bangor architect Benjamin S. Deane. The building is now owned by the town.</p><br>
<p>The Former Free Will Baptist Church is a historic church building at 12 High Street in Milo, Maine. It is home to the Milo Historical Society Museum. Built in 1853, this wood frame structure was Milo&#39;s first church, shared initially by Baptist and Free Will Baptist congregations before becoming the exclusive property of the latter. It has served as the local history museum since 1996. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The church is a single-story wood frame structure, with clapboarded exterior and a front-gable roof. A square tower stands attached to the main block&#39;s southwest corner, topped by a belfry and a pyramidal roof. The main (southwest-facing) facade has a large central grouping of four sash windows, two over two, with a shallow hood above, and a round-arch louvered opening in the gable end. The main entrance is between this window group and the tower, sheltered by a portico with jigsawn brackets. The left facade has two windows in the wall of the nave and one in the tower, and there are three similar windows in the right facade. The interior is virtually unaltered since its last major renovation c. 1900.</p><br>
<p>The Free Will Baptist congregation in Milo was established in 1827, and was the communitys first organized congregation. It was joined in 1840 by a Baptist congregation. The two groups negotiated for many years concerning the construction of a sanctuary, but nothing occurred beyond the donation of land until William Owen, a local farmer and a member of the Baptist congregation, took it upon himself in 1853 to fund and oversee the construction of the present buildings main block, albeit with vernacular Greek Revival styling. Owen was partially compensated for his efforts by the sale of pews. The building was used by both congregations until 1888, when the Baptists moved to a separate building.</p><br>
<p>The Free Will Baptists in about 1900 made significant alterations to the building, adding the tower and exterior Queen Anne elements, and redecorating the interior. Their congregation formally merged with the Baptists in 1913, occupying the Baptist edifice on Pleasant Street. This building was afterward used by Christian Scientist and Episcopal congregations before its acquisition in 1996 by the Milo Historical Society.</p><br>
<p>Let&#39;s learn about the origins of the word Java...</p><br>
<h3>Java Island</h3><br>
<p>Java (Jawa) is an island of Indonesia and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. Once the centre of powerful Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms, Islamic sultanates, and the core of the colonial Dutch East Indies, Java now plays a dominant role in the economic and political life of Indonesia. Home to a population of 130 million in 2006, it is the most populous island in the world, ahead of Honshū, the main island of Japan. Java is also one of the most densely populated regions on Earth.</p><br>
<p>Formed mostly as the result of volcanic events, Java is the 13th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in Indonesia. A chain of volcanic mountains forms an east-west spine along the island. It has three main languages, though Javanese is dominant and is the native language of 60 million people in Indonesia, most of whom live on Java. Most residents are bilingual, with Indonesian as their second language. While the majority of Javanese are Muslim, Java has a diverse mixture of religious beliefs and cultures.</p><br>
<h2>Etymology</h2><br>
<p>The origins of the name Java are not clear. One possibility is that an early traveller from India named the island after the jáwa-wut plant, which was said to be common in the island during the time, and that prior to Indianization the island had different names. There are other possible sources: the word jaú and its variations mean "beyond" or "distant". And, in Sanskrit yava means barley, a plant for which the island was famous. Another source states that the "Java" word is derived from a Proto-Austronesian root word, meaning home.</p><br>
<h2>Geography</h2><br>
<p>Java lies between Sumatra to the west and Bali to the east. Borneo lies to the north and Christmas Island to the south. It is the world&#39;s 13th largest island.</p><br>
<p>Java is almost entirely of volcanic origin; it contains no fewer than thirty-eight mountains forming an east-west spine which have at one time or another been active volcanoes. The highest volcano in Java is Mount Semeru (3,676 m). The most active volcano in Java and also in Indonesia is Mount Merapi (2,968 m). See Volcanoes of Java. Further mountains and highlands help to split the interior into a series of relatively isolated regions suitable for wet-rice cultivation; the rice lands of Java are among the richest in the world. Java was the first place where Indonesian coffee was grown, starting in 1699. Today, Coffea arabica is grown on the Ijen Plateau by small-holders and larger plantations.</p><br>
<p>The area of Java is approximately 139,000 km. The island&#39;s longest river is the 600 km long Bengawan Solo River. The river rises from its source in central Java at the Lawu volcano, then flows north and eastwards to its mouth in the Java Sea near the city of Surabaya.</p><br>
<p>The island is administratively divided into four provinces (Banten, West Java, Central Java, and East Java), one special region (Yogyakarta), and one special capital district (Jakarta).</p><br>
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<p>The Swedish Lutheran Church  is a historic former Swedish Lutheran church building on Wilkins and Hebron Streets in Monson, Maine. The church was established by Swedish immigrants to Maine and built by them in 1890. It is architecturally distinctive as an uncommon example of Swedish-influenced religious architecture in Maine, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The building is now a study center of the Areopagus II America Institute , a Christian religious apologetics organization.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The church building is located at the western corner of Hebron and Wilkins Streets, two quiet side streets in the center of Monson, Maine. The building faces northeast, and is a single-story wood frame structure with clapboard siding, gable roof, and Gothic styling. A vestibule with a lower gable roof projects from the main building, and is topped by a two-stage square tower. The entrance is flanked by lancet-arched windows, with a small bullseye design in the gable. The first stage of the tower is paneled, and the second, housing the belfry, has paired pointed-arch louvered openings on each side. The tower is capped by an octagonal steeple. The building&#39;s side windows are lancet-arched, and are capped by small gables.</p><br>
<p>The Monson area received an influx of immigrants in the mid-1870s, drawn to work in the nearby slate quarries. Most of these were Swedish, and they built this church in 1890 to serve their population, which was a diverse mix of Christian denominations. After the Methodists split in 1892, the church was exclusively used by Swedish Lutheran congregants. The building was used as the local American Legion chapter between 1946 and 1970, and was afterward operated for a time as a hostel serving hikers on the Appalachian Trail. The building now houses the study center of the Areopagus II America Institute (AIIA), a Christian apologetics organization founded in 1991.</p><br>
<p>The First Baptist Church of Bowdoin and Coombs Cemetery are an historic church and cemetery in Bowdoin, Maine. The church, a modest transitional Federal style-Greek Revival building, was built in 1839 for a congregation founded in 1788, and the cemetery is of similar antiquity. The property was the first in the town to be the subject of active preservation efforts. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The First Baptist Church is set on a rural parcel in central eastern Bowdoin, a few hundred feet west of United States Route 201. It and the adjacent cemetery are accessed via an unlabeled dirt road that runs west across an open field and into the woods surrounding the church and cemetery. The church is a modest single-story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof, clapboard siding, and a granite foundation. The main facade, facing east, has an elaborate entrance, the door framed by panels and a transom window, with pilasters and a Federal style fan as an outer surround. The sides each have two windows. The interior has a vestibule that opens into the sanctuary, which has three sections of bench pews and a raised pulpit.</p><br>
<p>The cemetery which stands behind the church is a family cemetery that belonged to the Eaton and Coombs families. It is surrounded by a low stone wall, added in 1900 when the church underwent restoration.</p><br>
<p>The First Baptist Church of Bowdoin was organized in 1788, and its first church was built in 1799. That building was destroyed by an arsonist in 1834, and the present building was constructed soon afterward. The congregation, apparently always small, dwindled during the 19th century, and the property eventually reverted to members of the Coombs family, on whose land it had been built. John and Viola Coombs in 1900 undertook the restoration of the church and their ancestral cemetery. Viola Coombs gave Bowdoin College an endowment for its maintenance. The college has since transferred the endowment and responsibility for the property&#39;s care to the local historical society.</p><br>
<p>The Winter Street Church, originally known as the Winter Street Congregational Church, is an historic former Congregational church at 880 Washington Street, corner of Winter Street in Bath, Sagadahoc County, Maine. Built in 1843-44, it is a fine early example of Gothic Revival architecture, designed and built by a local master builder. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 27, 1971. The building was saved from destruction by Sagadahoc Preservation Inc. in 1971, and is now called the Winter Street Center.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The former Winter Street Church stands just north of Bath&#39;s downtown area, facing Library Park at the northwest corner of Washington and Winter Streets. It is a single-story wood-frame structure, with a gabled roof topped by a multistage square tower. The main facade is divided into three bays, separated by pilasters that have Gothic arched panels, with those at the corners topped by pinnacles. The outer bays have entrances topped by Gothic arches and flanked by pilasters that rise to curved moulding over the arches. The center bay has a pair of Gothic windows flanked by slender arched panels. The tower has four stages, each with pinnacles and paneled pilasters at the corners; the belfry is open, and a steeple caps the structure.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1843-44 by Anthony Raymond, a local master builder, and is an important early example of the Gothic Revival in New England. In 1848, due to its large enrollment, the sanctuary space was enlarged by reducing the size of the vestibule. In 1898 the interior was redesigned by Portland architect John Calvin Stevens. The building was rescued from demolition in 1971 by Sagadahoc Preservation, which purchased the building in 1986, and now operates it as a community center.</p><br>
<p>The Bingham Free Meetinghouse is a historic church on South Main Street  in Bingham, Maine. Built in 1835-36, this wood frame structure was the first church to be built north of Caratunk Falls in northwestern Maine. The building is architecturally transitional, exhibiting both Federal and Gothic Revival elements. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The church is a single story wood frame structure, finished in clapboards and resting on a granite foundation. Its main facade is divided into three bays, with the outer bays housing matching entrances, each flanked by pilasters and topped by an architrave with projecting cornice moulding. The central bay has a Gothic-style lancet window, as do all three bays at the balcony level. The sides of the church have four tall Gothic windows. A tower rises above the main facade, whose first stage is a square, with a sunburst louver pattern on three sides. This section is topped by a low balustrade with Gothic pinnacles at the corners. The next state is an open belfry, with eight columns rising to support a bell-shaped steeple, with spire and weathervane.</p><br>
<p>The interior has relatively modest Federal styling, most of which it has retained. The original pulpit and box pews remain, although the doors of the latter have been removed. The balcony level was removed during remodelling in 1902.</p><br>
<p>Major settlement of the town of Bingham began in the early 19th century, with early church congregations meeting in the local schoolhouse. In 1835 the local denominations agreed to share the cost of constructing this building, which was completed in 1836. Services were originally arranged based on pew ownership, but eventually the dominant Congregationalists took the building over completely. Attendance declined with the construction of a new church around the turn of the 20th century. This building was rescued from demolition by a chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), which later transferred title of the building to the town.</p><br>
<p>The Former First Baptist Church is a historic church building at 37 Main Street in Skowhegan, Maine. Built in 1842-44, this Greek Revival brick building is one of the few works attributable to a local master builder, Joseph Bigelow. It was used as a church until 1919, after which it was used as a community center, and then a VFW hall until 2009. It is  vacant, with plans to establish a performance and meeting venue; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The former First Baptist Church is set on the west side of Main Street in Skowhegan, just south of its junction with Maine State Route 104, and next to the 1807 Bloomfield Academy building. It is a roughly rectangular brick structure, with a front-facing gable roof and a granite foundation. The main block is augmented by a projecting vestibule in the front, and a vestry addition in the rear. The vestibule is three bays wide, with a pair of double-doors set in lancet-arched openings flanking a central sash window, also set in a lancet-arch opening. The roofline of the vestibule has a shallow pitch, with a central front-facing gable. Behind the vestibule the main facade was originally five bays wide, separated by brick pilasters, of which only the outermost are now fully visible. The main roof gable is fully pedimented, and is finished in flushboarding with a recessed central section that has a quatrefoil window.</p><br>
<p>The congregation for which the church was built was established in 1796, and its first meetinghouse, built in 1812, was destroyed by fire in 1841. The present building was built to replace it; it was designed by Joseph Bigelow and completed in 1844. It is one of a small number of buildings with documentary connection to Bigelow, a locally renowned master builder. Growth of the congregation prompted enlargement of the building in the 1880s, at which time the vestry and vestibule were added. This remodeling campaign probably also included artwork by Portland artist Charles Schumacher, work that was lost due to subsequent alterations. The church was closed in 1919 when the Baptists merged with the local Congregational church. In 1926 the building was adapted for use as a community center, which included construction of a basketball court in its interior. It later housed the headquarters of the local National Guard organization, and served as a meeting space for the local Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter until 2009. After a period of town ownership, it was purchased by a private owner with plans to rehabilitate the building as a meeting venue.</p><br>
<p>The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.</p><br>
<p>The Mercer Union Meetinghouse is a historic church on Main Street, just west of United States Route 2, in Mercer, Maine. Built in 1829 for several different denominations to share, this church is a relatively early and rare example of transitional Federal-Gothic styling in the state, with its tower set partially over the entrance vestibule, another uncommon feature. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The church is set on the north side of Main Street, a short way west of its junction with US 2. It is a rectangular wood-frame structure with a projecting vestibule area at the front (south-facing facade). Its gable roof is pedimented up to the vestibule, which itself has only partial returns, owing to a large Gothic-arched window at its center. A pair of identical entrances flank this window in the projecting section. The square tower rises partially over the vestibule and partially over the main block, its first stage with a plain clapboarded finish, and the second, belfry stage flushboarded with louvered openings. Corner spires and a balustrade cap the tower. The doorways lead into separate small vestibules, from which doorways lead into the main hall. The pews are a transitional style between older box pews and bench pews, set in groups, with the ends painted in an unusual false wood-grain style. The walls are wainscoted below and finished in pressed tin above, which is continued into the ceiling, which is finished with tin paneling.</p><br>
<p>The meetinghouse was built in 1829 to house the activities of several different congregations. The Methodist had organized in the town in the early 19th century, and the Congregationalists in 1822, but neither had a permanent sanctuary until this one was built. Funding was also raised by the sale of pews to Universalists, who also made use of the building. By 1857 the building was apparently being used exclusively by Congregationalists, whose congregation folded in the early 20th century. The building was thereafter used by the Methodists again, but only on a seasonal basis. The building is now owned and maintained by the Mercer Meetinghouse Association, a local nonprofit.</p><br>
<p>Moose River Congregational Church is a historic church at 2 Heald Stream Road  in Jackman, Maine. The church congregation is affiliated with the United Church of Christ. The congregation meets in an 1891 Gothic Revival building that has served it since the congregation was established in 1890. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Moose River Congregational Church is set at the northeast corner of Heald Stream Road and US 201 near the northern end of Jackman village. It is a basically rectangular single-story wood-frame structure, with a metal gable roof and a projecting tower and vestibule section at the south-facing front. The front is symmetrically arranged with paneled corner pilasters and narrow pointed-arch windows flanking the projecting section. The entry also has corner pilasters, and a gable-roof pediment matching the main roof line in details. A double-leaf door is topped by a line of dentil moulding, above which is a triangular stained glass window. The second stage of the tower above the entrance is simple, with narrow pointed-arch window on three sides and slender corner pilasters. Above this is a section of pyramidal roofing, finished with wood shingles, some of which are decoratively cut. An open belfry stands above that, each side of the square tower consisting of a pair of pointed-arch openings. The steeple rises above to a weathervane.</p><br>
<p>Although the Jackman area was settled in 1820, it did not have regular religious services for many years, seeing only visits by itinerant ministers. By the late 1880s the population had grown sufficiently to support a call for the construction of a church, and the Moose River congregation formally organized in June 1890. The present church was built in 1890-91 and formally dedicated in 1892. It is architecturally distinctive as a local example of Gothic Revival architecture, and demonstrates an architectural transition toward more fully integrating the tower into the main church structure.</p><br>
<p>Pittsfield Universalist Church is a historic church at 112 Easy Streets in Pittsfield, Maine. Built in 1898-99 with parts dating to 1857, it is one of the town&#39;s finest examples of Queen Anne architecture, and is noted for its artwork and stained glass. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Pittsfield Universalist Church is set on the east side of Main Street in the center of Pittsfield, just north of its junction with Easy Street (from which it is accessed by vehicle). It is a 2-1/2 story T-shaped wood frame structure with its main sanctuary oriented east-west. The top of the T, attached to the sanctuary at its eastern end, houses a meeting space, parlor, and vestry. It is the congregation&#39;s original 1857 sanctuary, moved and rotated, and extensively altered during the construction of the present sanctuary.</p><br>
<p>Three modestly-scaled towers are attached to these structures. At the southeastern junction of the two sections is the largest tower, which was originally more elaborately detailed, but is now topped by a gable roof; it houses the building&#39;s main entrance. At the southwestern end of the sanctuary stands a second square tower, and lower third rounded third tower is at the northeast of the sanctuary.</p><br>
<p>The interior of the church is noted for its artwork and stained glass. The ceilings are adorned with frescoes painted by Henry H. Cochrane, a prolific Maine artist who decorated numerous churches in the state. The stained glass windows of the sanctuary were designed by Redding, Baird and Co. of Boston, Massachusetts. The interior is unique in the state for these features and its excellent state of preservation.</p><br>
<p>South Solon Meetinghouse is a historic church building in south central Solon, Maine. Built in 1842, it is a remarkably fine example of Gothic Revival architecture in a rural setting. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The building is now owned by a non-profit organization and operated as a community function space.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The South Solon Meetinghouse is located at the fourway junction of Rices Corner (or South Solon) Road, Parkman Hill Road, and Meetinghouse Road, about 5 mi southeast of the village center of Solon. It is a single-story wood frame structure, with a gable roof and clapboard siding. A squat single-stage square tower rises above the main (east-facing) facade, consisting of a belfry with Gothic-arched louvered openings, and pinnacles at the corners above. The main facade is symmetrically arranged, with a pair of entrance flanking a tall central window, all three elements topped by Gothic-arched panels. The sides of the building each have three similar windows.</p><br>
<p>The original box pews, pulpit and choir loft gallery are still in place. The interior of the South Solon Meeting House was elaborately painted between 1952 and 1957 by 13 artists from the nearby. The artwork inside this building features a painting technique called buon fresco which has been taught at the Skowhegan School since its foundation. Some of the artists involved in this fresco project are William King, Ashley Bryan, Sidney Hurwitz, John Wallace, Sigmund Abeles, and Edwin Brooks.</p><br>
<p>Limington Academy is a historic private academy building on Maine State Route 117 in the center of Limington, Maine. The Academy was founded in 1848, and the Greek Revival style building was completed in 1854. The building, still owned by the academy trustees, is still used for educational purposes. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Limington Academy building is set on the west side Cape Road (SR 117), a short way south of its junction with Maine State Route 11, which marks the center of the rural community. It is a two story wood frame structure, with clapboard siding, granite foundation, and a gabled roof topped by an octagonal cupola. The east-facing front facade is four bays wide, with the outer bays taken up by recessed porches that extend for two bays along the sides. The porches are supported by paneled square posts, details repeated in pilasters at the building corners. The front gable is fully pedimented, with a triangular louvered fan at its center.</p><br>
<p>Limington Academy was founded in 1848 as a subscription school. The primary founders were Dr. Samuel M. Bradbury, Rev. J H. Garmon, Arthur McArthur, Esq., James McArthur, Gideon L. Moody, and Isaac L. Mitchell. William G. Lord headed the school from 1851 to 1894. Originally, there were no grades and students attended until they were prepared for college or work.</p><br>
<p>The William Pepperrell House is a historic house at 94 Pepperrell Road  in Kittery Point, Maine. Built about 1682 and later enlarged and restyled, it was at the time of its construction the grandest house in what is now the state of Maine. It is notable as the birthplace and home of Sir William Pepperrell  a leading businessman of the period whose greatest claim to fame was leading the 1745 Siege of Louisbourg during King George&#39;s War. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Pepperrell House is located on the south side of Pepperrell Road, just east of Bellamy Lane, and faces south toward Pepperrell Cove on the Piscataqua River. It is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, with a gambrel roof and clapboard siding. Both front (water-facing) and rear (street-facing) facades are four bays wide, with an entrance in one of the central bays. The building corners are pilastered, and the entrances have flanking pilasters and are topped by gabled pediments. Above the street-facing entrance is a round-arch window.</p><br>
<p>The house was built about 1682 for William Pepperrell (d. 1733), a fisherman who moved to the area in 1680 and married the daughter of John Bray, a local merchant and shipwright. Pepperrell joined his father-in-law in business, and by 1695 owned most of Kittery Point. By the early 18th century he was one of the wealthiest men in New England. His son, also named William, was active in the family business, and joined the local militia, rising to command the entire militia of the Massachusetts District of Maine. When King Georges War broke out in 1744, Pepperrell was chosen to lead a colonial expedition to take the French Fortress Louisbourg on what is now Cape Breton Island. For leading the capture of this strategic fortification, Pepperrell was awarded a baronetcy by King George II. Pepperrells large landholdings were lost by his grandson, who remained Loyal during the American Revolutionary War and fled to England, resulting in the confiscation of the estate by the state.</p><br>
<p>The Proprietors Meeting House and Parish House, known for many years as the Universalist Church of Scarborough and South Buxton, is a historic church complex at the junction of Maine State Route 22 and Old County Road in the village of South Buxton, on the Scarborough side of the town line with Buxton, Maine. The church, built about 1839, is a fine local example of transitional Federal-Gothic Revival architecture, and the adjacent parish house, built in 1914, is a good local example of the Bungalow style. The property, purchased for use of the Maine Hindu Temple in 2012, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Proprietors Meeting House and Parish House is located at the southeast corner of Broad Turn Road and Old County Road (Maine State Route 22) in southeastern Buxton. The meeting house is a single-story rectangular structure with a projecting entry pavilion, and a tower straddling the line between the two sections. The main roof and entry section roof are gabled, and the walls are clapboarded. The entry pavilion has two entrances, set near its corners, with flanking pilasters and Gothic-arched louvered fans above. Windows at the sides are sash, with similar Gothic fans. The tower has a square first stage, with an open belfry that has arched openings, and a steeple above.</p><br>
<p>The parish house stands just east of the meetinghouse. It is a single-story wood frame structure, topped by a hip roof and finished in wooden shingles. The roof covers an engaged porch at the front, supported by square posts linked by a slatted balustrade. The interior of the original portion of the building consists of a hall with a stage at the far end, with a kitchen and modern bathroom facilities in additions near the rear.</p><br>
<p>The congregation that built the church was organized in 1838, primarily to provide Sunday School services to the area population. The church was built in 1839 or 1840 (extant records disagree), and was sporadically served by ministers through the 19th century, although the Sunday School was generally well-attended. but the temple acquired a different church in Westbrook.</p><br>
<p>The York Historic District encompasses the historic village center of York, Maine, one of the oldest communities in the state. The expansive 1,700 acre district includes the oldest church in Maine, built by its oldest congregation in 1747, and the Old York Gaol, a National Historic Landmark that is one of the oldest public buildings in the United States. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The town of York was established about 1630 as "Agamenticus", and was part of an effort by Sir Ferdinando Gorges to establish a dominant colony in New England. Gorges dreams were not realized, and Agamenticus, along with the rest of Gorges territory, became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1650s. Agamenticus was renamed York, and became the county seat of York County, Massachusetts. Its central village grew on the northern bank of the York River, remaining small until the second decade of the 18th century, when the threat of further French and Indian Wars began to subside in the region. The oldest portion of the Old York Gaol was built in 1719, as was the Benjamin Stone Tavern on York Street. The First Parish Church, which stands on York Street in the village center near the Old Gaol, was built in 1747 for the first established church congregation in the state. The York Harbor area located southeast of the village center (and included in this district) developed in the 18th and 19th century as a shipping and shipbuilding center, and the York Corner area, near United States Route 1, developed as a service area for inland travelers and farmers.</p><br>
<p>The district is roughly bounded to the northeast by a line extending from US Route 1 to US Route 1A near its junction with Roaring Rock Road, and on the east by a line extending south from there to the mouth of the York River. The southern boundary extends westward, on the south side of the river, to Bartlett Road, with its western boundary extending north from their to the starting point. This area includes the traditional centers of York Village, York Harbor, and York Corner, along with the water-based resources of the York River that influenced the community&#39;s growth.</p><br>
<p>The Kate Douglas Wiggin House, also known as Quillcote, is a historic house on Salmon Falls Road in Hollis, Maine. Built in 1797, the house is significant as the home of the writer Kate Douglas Wiggin from 1905 until her death in 1923, and as a fine example of adaptive architectural change over time. One room of the house features wall murals attributed to Rufus Porter. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>Quillcote is set on the west side of Salmon Falls Road in the Hollis side of Salmon Falls village, on the banks of the Saco River in southeastern Hollis. It is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, five bays wide and two deep, with a front-facing gable roof and clapboard siding. This section has modest Greek Revival styling, including a fully pedimented gable that has three windows, the central one topped by a lancet-arched louver. The main entrance is centered on this facade, sheltered by a porch with Federal style Doric columns. To the rear of this block extends the oldest part of the house, a two-story wood frame structure, with another extending to the right. Further ells extend further behind the house, connecting it to a barn.</p><br>
<p>The interior is arranged with public spaces in the front of the house, and a sitting room, kitchen, and pantry space in the rear, with bedrooms on the second floor. One bedroom in the older part of the house has a curved ceiling, suggesting it may have served as a ballroom at one time. A balcony was added to this room in 1905, standing above a bay window projecting from the sitting room below. The interior&#39;s most intriguing room is completely painted in murals, with a golden frieze border running around the top. This work is estimated to date to about 1820, and may be the work of Rufus Porter, who was then an itinerant painter producing stylistically similar works.</p><br>
<p>The houses oldest portion was, according to local lore, built about 1797 by Jabez Bradbury. He and neighbor Thomas Carll exchanged houses in the early 19th century, and the Carll family is credited with bringing the house to most of its present appearance. Kate Douglas Wiggin, by then already a well-known author of childrens books, acquired this house in 1905, having spent some years of her childhood in Salmon Falls. Her mother had, after her father&#39;s death, remarried to Albion Bradbury, whose house stands nearby. Widowed at the time, she named the house "Quillcote" (house of the pen), and lived there with her sister until both died.</p><br>
<p>The Saco Historic District encompasses the historic commercial and residential centers of Saco, Maine. Covering more than 100 acre of central Saco, it includes houses from the 18th through 20th centuries, and the main business district along Main Street. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>Saco, located in southern Maine on the east side of the Saco River, was incorporated as Pepperellborough in 1762, honoring its major landowner, Sir William Pepperrell. Development was at first restricted to a small area near what is now called Factory Island in the Saco River, and did not begin to broaden until the early 18th century, because many of Pepperrell&#39;s lands were seized by the state because his heirs were Loyalist during the American Revolution, and were not sold off until 1798-99. Saco experienced significant economic growth in the 19th century, primarily through lumber, which was brought down the Saco from the interior, and the large textile mills which were first built on Factory Island in 1826. These industries both declined beginning in the 1940s.</p><br>
<p>The historic district is roughly cruciform in shape, centered on the five-way junction of Main, Elm, Beach, and North Streets. Main Street (Maine State Route 9) and the main business district extends southwest, become more residential to the northeast of the junction, while the other roads are more residential in character. The oldest building in the district, dating to the late 18th century, is the Solomon Coit House at 380 Main Street, which was built in 1785. Two other houses, built in the 18th century, are like the Coit House Georgian in style, although that style was out of fashion when they were built. The district has a good representation of Federal period housing, and the Greek Revival, which came after the introduction of the mills, is also well represented. The Emma Hall House, at 342 Main Street, is the best example of a Queen Anne residence in the historic district.</p><br>
<p>Three buildings in the district are separately listed on the National Register. Saco City Hall is a fine transitional Greek Revival-Italianate brick building, built in 1855. The J.G. Deering House is a high-quality Italianate house, which now houses the local library and historical museum. The Thacher-Goodale House on North Street (built 1828) is the city&#39;s finest example of a temple-fronted Greek Revival house. A fourth property, the First Parish Church on Beach Street, was listed, but was destroyed by fire in 2000, and has since been delisted.</p><br>
<p>The Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary is a historic medical facility that was located at 794-800 Congress Street in Portland, Maine. Also known as Holt Hall, the structure, designed by John Calvin Stevens, was redeveloped into a residential building in 1997, after standing dormant for nearly 10 years. The Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary was built in 1891. In 1951 the hospital merged with the Children&#39;s Hospital and Maine General Hospital to become Maine Medical Center. The facility was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The former Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary building is located in Portland&#39;s West End, at the southeast corner of Congress and Bramhall Streets, just east of the main campus of the Maine Medical Center. It is a brick building, six stories tall, with stone trim and a dormered hip roof, and a three-story ell extending to the south. Its ground floor functionally appears as a raised basement, finished in quarry-cut stone. The main entrance is on Bramhall Street, set in a two-story round-arched opening, and there are four storefronts on the Congress Street side, with plate glass display windows and recessed entrances, set between stone piers.</p><br>
<p>The Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary was founded in 1886 by Dr. Erastus Eugene Holt, and was one of the first institutions of its type in the nation. This building was built for the infirmary in 1891 to a design by noted Portland architect John Calvin Stevens, and is an important transitional work of his, moving from the earlier Queen Anne and Romanesque styles toward the Colonial Revival. Stevens and his son John Howard Stevens designed large additions (not generally visible from the street) to the rear in 1916. Following the Infirmary&#39;s merger into the Maine Medical Center, it continued to be used for medical functions until 1980. It has since been converted to primarily residential use.</p><br>
<p>The East 78th Street Houses are a row of five attached brick houses on that street in Manhattan, New York, United States. They are the remainder of an original group of 11 built in 1861, when the area was originally being developed due to the extension of rail transit into it.</p><br>
<p>As a result, they are among the oldest townhouses on the Upper East Side. Some of them have been added onto, and the two easternmost were combined into a single unit. They retain enough historical integrity that they were designated a New York City Landmark in 1968, and were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<h2>Buildings</h2><br>
<p>The row is located at 157–165 East 78th, on the north side of the street between Third and Lexington avenues. It is closer to the Lexington intersection at the west end of the block. The neighborhood is residential, consisting of similar, often larger, rowhouses and apartment buildings. It is just outside the Upper East Side Historic District, and on the southern edge of Yorkville.</p><br>
<p>They are on lots 18 ft wide by 102 ft deep, although the buildings themselves only cover the front 40 ft. They are two stories high, with exposed basements giving them the appearance of three and a main entrance below street level. The westernmost house, 157, has had a slate-shingled mansard roof with three gabled dormer windows added. At the east end, 163 and 165 have been combined into one house, with a penthouse on the roof.</p><br>
<p>All the houses share some identical decoration, painted white on the western three and black or unpainted on 163–65. A brownstone belt course runs across all five between the basement and first story, unpainted on 163–65. The plain lintels, also brownstone, are similarly decorated. The pressed metal cornice at the roofline is the same on all five, supported by rounded consoles faced in acanthus leaves and decorated with round modillions. It has been painted black on 163–165 and white on the other three, as have the window muntins.</p><br>
<p>The windows on 157&#39;s first story are protected by decorative iron grilles. Its entrance door is glazed rather than painted white. The iron fencing around the terrace is taller than that at 159 next door, and identical to that at 163–65.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The opening of the New York and Harlem Railroad, supplemented by horse cars of the Third Avenue Railway after 1852 made what was then the village of Yorkville attractive to developers, as its horse cars brought the suburb within commuting distance of the commercial heart of New York, which was still concentrated below 14th Street. The city was already rapidly expanding northward, and wealthy residents had built many large mansions constructed along Fifth Avenue up to 42nd Street.</p><br>
<p>In 1860 few of the streets north of 42nd had been graded. But East 78th was opened that year, and a painter named John Turner bought lots 24–28. Since land was getting more expensive, the houses were narrower than their Federal and Greek Revival counterparts built earlier in the century; unlike grander row housing built since the 1840s, they continued to use brick instead of the more expensive brownstone.</p><br>
<p>Builder Henry Armstrong erected the original row of 11 on the property as speculative housing the next year, 1861. They found willing buyers for whom the lower costs offset the longer commutes. All were finished within that year, making the five survivors the oldest townhouses on the Upper East Side today, beating out this six at 208-218 East 78th, which were part of an original row of 15 started in 1861 but not finished for four years due to material shortages caused by the Civil War.</p><br>
<p>Later in the 19th century, the mansard roof emblematic of the Second Empire style was added to 157. In 1911 a third story, slightly recessed, was added to the top of 163–65 and the two separate houses were merged. Later in the 20th century the other houses were demolished to clear the way for the larger apartment buildings now on those lots. The original stoops were removed and the former service entrances became the main ones. There have otherwise been no alterations and all five remain private homes.</p><br>
<p>The Cedar Swamp Covered Bridge, also known as the Station Bridge and by various other names, was a historic wooden covered bridge spanning Otter Creek between Cornwall and Salisbury, Vermont. The Town lattice truss bridge was built in 1864-1865 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. It was destroyed by fire in September 2016.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Cedar Swamp Covered Bridge stood in a rural area of southeastern Cornwall and western Salisbury, connecting Cornwalls Swamp Road with Salisburys Creek Road. The bridge was a Town lattice truss structure, built as a single span 153.5 ft long. It rested on abutments of marble that had were faced in concrete, and was supported near its center by a concrete pier added in 1969. The bridge was 18.5 ft wide, with a roadway width of 14 ft (one lane). Its exterior was finished in vertical board siding, which extended a short way on the inside of each portal. The portal openings were shaped as elliptical arches, and it was capped by a metal roof.</p><br>
<p>Built in 1864-65, the bridge was one of Vermont&#39;s few covered bridges which spanned town lines, and was the only surviving 19th-century covered bridge in both Cornwall and Salisbury.</p><br>
<p>The First Congregational Church  is a historic church at 464 Main Street in Orwell, Vermont. The current meeting house was built in 1843, and is one of state&#39;s best examples of Greek Revival ecclesiastical architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>The First Congregational Church stands prominently in the village center of Orwell, near the western end of an oval drive on the north side of Main Street (Vermont Route 73). It is an imposing single-story brick building, with a gabled roof and two-stage tower. The first stage of the tower is square with corner pilasters, and houses a clock. The second stage is an octagonal belfry, with four rectangular louvered faces separated by angled faces with paired fluted Ionic columns. It is topped by an octagonal cupola. The front facade has a fully pedimented gable above an entablature supported by four brick pilasters and two fluted Doric columns. The columns and inner pilaster demarcate a sheltered recess housing the main entrance.</p><br>
<p>The church was built by the membership, and retains much of its original form. The sanctuary windows, originally clear glass, began to be replaced by stained glass memorial windows in the late 19th century. One, the Children&#39;s Window, is unique in New England, as it was paid for by the children of the Sunday School in memory of other children of the church.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The church is an independent congregation "gathered" in 1789. The stained glass windows are not simply colored glass, but traditional stained glass windows, which illustrate Bible stories and teaching, such as Jesus and the children, the Trinity, and more. The sanctuary, which seats approximately 350, has its original pews, many of which were originally "family pews", purchased or rented by members of the church when the building was built. As recently as the late 20th century, some members still sat in their familys traditional pew, although the seating is now open to all. The fine acoustics lend themselves to organ concerts, congregational singing and makes easier preaching from the large Victorian pulpit. Music has long been a hallmark of the church, with organists serving for many years at the fine Hook-Tracker organ, built in the 1860s and restored in the early 1990s. This small instrument of only 16 stops two keyboards (including the pedal board)is nonetheless a versatile instrument. The churchs parsonage, at the corner of Main and Church Streets, was built ca. 1825, originally in the shape of a cross, but the two additional wings have since been removed.</p><br>
<p>The Leicester Meeting House is a historic church building at the junction of United States Route 7 and the Leicester-Whiting Road in the center of Leicester, Vermont. Built in 1829, it is a well-preserved example of vernacular Federal period church architecture executed in brick. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Leicester Meeting House is the most prominent structure in the rural community of Leicester&#39;s town center, located in what is known locally at Four Corners, the junction of US 7 with the Leicester-Whiting Road and Fern Lake Road. It is a single-story brick building, covered by a gabled roof and resting on a rustically cut stone foundation. It is three bays wide and three deep, with tall round-top sash windows set in round-arch recesses. The main entrance is in the center bay of the south-facing front facade, which projects about 4 ft forward and has a gabled roof. The double-leaf doorway is topped by a shallow arched transom window, and there is a Palladian window above; both the doorway and window are set in a shallow arched recess.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1829 by the Leicester Meeting House Society, formed in 1825 to provide a church meeting space for multiple Christian congregations. The brick was locally sourced, apparently made from clay sources about 0.5 mi away. The only major alteration to the building has been in its interior, which was originally built with the pulpit at the south end, in a semicircular niche below the gallery. In 1869, the society voted to move the pulpit to the north wall, where it stands on a raised platform. The church has served many different denominations over the years, including Methodists, Congregationalists, Pentecostals, and the Church of the Nazarene.</p><br>
<p>Florona Grange No. 540 Hall is a historic Grange hall and former church on Monkton Road in Monkton, Vermont. Built in 1811 as the Monkton Borough Baptist Church, it is the second-oldest church in Addison County. it is a fine example of Federal architecture with later Greek Revival additions. Its initial design is based closely on designs published by Asher Benjamin. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Florona Grange Hall stands in the village of Monkton Borough, on the west side of Monkton Road north of its junction with Hollow Road. It is set back from the road on a slight rise. It is a large two-story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. Its corners have narrow Federal style pilasters, rising to an entablature adorned with triglyphs. The front gable is fully pedimented, interrupted at the top by a square two-stage tower. The tower has a clock in the first stage, and a belfry in the second; the belfry stage has pilasters flanking rectangular louvered openings. A shallow gabled section projects from the center of the main facade, supported by four Doric columns. The three bays created by the columns each house an entrance, set in a rounded-arch opening with flanking pilasters and a keystone above. The interior has been significantly altered to accommodate Grange functions, but retains some of its 19th-century elements.</p><br>
<p>The hall was built in 1811 by a Baptist congregation established in 1794, and is only preceded in the county by the Middlebury Congregational Church, completed in 1809. In 1854, the present belfry was constructed, modifying the basic design of the exterior, which is based on a church depicted in Asher Benjamins The Country Builders Assistant, published in 1797. The Baptist congregation dissolved in 1903, and the building was acquired in 1904 by a Methodist congregation. In 1944 the Methodists combined forces with the local Quaker organization to share use of the latter&#39;s building, and this building was sold to the local Grange chapter, which had been organized in 1940. The hall continues to be used by the Grange as a community meeting and event venue.</p><br>
<p>The Salisbury Congregational Church is a historic church on Maple Run Road in the village center of Salisbury, Vermont. Completed in 1842, it is fine local example of vernacular Greek Revival architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Salisbury Congregational Church is centrally located in Salisbury&#39;s small village center, on the north side of Maple Run Road. It is a single story wood frame structure, with a gable roof, clapboarded exterior, and limestone foundation. The building corners have narrow corner boards, which rise to a modest entablature. The front-facing gable is fully pedimented with a plain clapboarded interior. The facade is symmetrical, with tall sash windows flanking the central entrance. The entrance is in a slight recess, framed by pilasters rising to an entablature and projecting cornice. A multistage tower rises from the roof ridge, starting with a square stage, above which an octagonal stage has plain circular panels in four faces. The belfry is in the next stage, which is basically square, with louvered sides and chamfered corners decorated with paneled pilasters. A slender spire caps the structure. The interior retains many original period features, including box pews and the pulpit area.</p><br>
<p>The church was built between 1840 and 1842 by Asahel Parsons, a local builder whose credits include churches in Middlebury. It is one of the prominent reminders of the towns 19th-century industrial past, having been built near the height of the towns importance as a regional mill center. Most of the materials for the church were locally produced: virgin timbers were milled in local mills, nails were forged at local ironworks, and a local historian claims its window glass also came from a glassworks operating at nearby Lake Dunmore.</p><br>
<p>Shoreham Congregational Church is a historic church on School Street in Shoreham, Vermont. Built in 1846 by a local master builder, it is one of the state&#39;s finest examples of ecclesiastical Greek Revival architecture, and also housed local town meetings for more than a century. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Shoreham Congregational Church is situated prominenty in the village center of Shoreham, at the southwest corner of School and Main Streets. It is a single-story brick building, with a gabled roof and stone foundation. Its front has a tall projecting portico, with four fluted Doric columns rising to a full entablature. The door and window bays on the front and sides are articulated by brick pilasters. The gable above the portico is finished with multiple levels of trim. The tower that rises above the front is elaborately styled, with a clock in the first stage and belfry in the second. Its stages are basically square, with chamfered corners featuring panel sections on the clock stage and paired miniature Ionic columns on the belfry stage. The tower is capped by an octagonal slate roof and weathervane.</p><br>
<p>The first church congregation was organized in Shoreham in 1794, and its first meeting house was built in 1800. In the first half of the 19th century, Shoreham became a remarkably prosperous agricultural community, its success derived from widespread cultivation of merino sheep. In 1846, the present edifice was constructed under the supervision of Jacob Lamb, a regionally well-known master builder, whose other credits include the Wilcox-Cutts House in Orwell, another of the states finest Greek Revival buildings. The buildings design is an original combination of designs taken from the publications of architect Asher Benjamin. The buildings location on the town green was approved by the town, which requested permission to hold town meetings in the new buildings basement. This use continued until 1956, when the meeting was moved to the local school.</p><br>
<p>The South Starksboro Friends Meeting House and Cemetery is a historic Quaker meeting house and cemetery on Dan Sargent Road in Starksboro, Vermont. Built in 1828 and last significantly updated in the 1870s, it is the oldest Quaker meeting house in Vermont, and continues to see regular use. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The South Starksboro Friends Meeting House stands in a rural area of southern Starksboro, on the east side of Dan Sargent Road. It is a modest rectangular wood frame structure, with a metal roof, clapboarded exterior, and modern concrete foundation. Its front facade has three bays, with sash windows flanking a minimally adorned entrance flanked by wide moulding and topped by a cornice. The side walls each have two windows, and the rear wall has a single window in the half story, providing the sole means of access to the attic. The interior has an entry vestibule across its width, which leads into the main hall, now typically arranged with pews in a circular configuration. The interior has original bead-board wainscoting, but most of its modest stylistic elements date to the late 19th century, including kerosene lamps for lighting and a small organ. Most of the 0.5 acre property is taken up by the cemetery, which has modest headstones and burials dating from the early 19th century to the 1970s.</p><br>
<p>The Starksboro area was one of earliest places in Vermont to be settled by Quakers, drawn by Joseph Hoag, who had established a meeting at Danby. The Starksboro Meeting was organized in 1799 as the Lincoln Preparative Meeting, a subordinate group to that at Danby. In 1825, it was renamed as the Creek Meeting, and the present building was constructed the following year. Prior to that, the meeting had met at the home of David Morrison, which still stands several hundred yards north on Dan Sargent Road. In 1871 the building was enlarged by the addition of the entrance hall, and stylistic changes were made to its interior. The congregation supported a minister until 1923, and the building is still the site of regular meetings, albeit on a less frequent basis than in the past. The only other 19th-century Quaker meeting house still in use in the state is in nearby Monkton.</p><br>
<p>The Starksboro Village Meeting House is a historic church and town hall on Vermont Route 116 in the village center of Starksboro, Vermont. It was built in 1838 as a cooperative venture between three church congregations and the town, and is a fine local example of Gothic Revival architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Starksboro Village Meeting House is located near the center of Starksboro Village, on the west side of Vermont 116 a short way south of its junction with Big Hollow Road. It is a single-story rectangular wood frame structure, with a gabled roof, clapboarded exterior, and a high stone foundation. A two-stage belltower rises above the roof ridgeline, with corner pinnacles at the top. The main facade is symmetrical, with tall Gothic-arched windows flanking the main entrance, which is itself topped by a Gothic-pointed window. A smaller arched window is set in the gable above. The entrance is framed by simple Greek Revival styling. The interior has an entry vestibule leading into the sanctuary, which is finished in plaster with simple vertical wainscoting. A kerosene-powered chandelier hangs at the center of the sanctuary. The basement of the building, originally one large space used for town meetings, has been divided into two, but retains many original features.</p><br>
<p>Prior to the construction of this building, Starksboro&#39;s town meetings were generally held in the village schoolhouse. Three church congregations, Methodist, Free Will Baptist, and Christian, each typically met in the homes of their members. In 1838 these groups came together and agreed on the construction of this building, which was completed in 1840. In 1868, the Free Will Baptists built their own church on the south side of the village, and the Christian dwindled and eventually died out, leaving the Methodists as the sole religious occupants. The town moved its offices and facilities into a new town hall (the present one) in 1910, and the Methodist formed a new union with the Free Will Baptists, using the larger edifice of the latter. This building then stood largely unused, with occasional use for community functions and services. Beginning in 1957 it has been maintained by the Starksboro Village Meeting House Society.</p><br>
<p>Weybridge Town Hall is located Quaker Village Road in northern Weybridge, Vermont. It was built in 1847, originally serving as the Wesleyan Methodist Church before becoming the town&#39;s first and only town hall in 1893. A fine example of Greek Revival architecture, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>Weybridge Town Hall stands on the west side of Quaker Village Road in a dispersed village setting in northern Weybridge, arrayed mainly on the east bank of Otter Creek. It is a single-story wood frame structure with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. The roof is capped by a tower that rises from a low flushboarded square base to a six-sided louvered belfry to an ogee-shaped dome. The main facade has paneled corner pilasters rising to an entablature and a fully pedimented gable with sunburst planking. The interior retains significant Greek Revival woodwork, as well as original bench pews and early 20th-century light fixtures.</p><br>
<p>The building was built in 1847 following the split of the local Methodist congregation over the matter of slavery. The abolitionist faction had withdrew from the original congregation established in 1798, and built this church. Its builders clearly drew inspiration from the published works of Asher Benjamin: a number of its exterior and interior details are clearly drawn from plates in his pattern books. The Methodist congregations reunited after the American Civil War, but declined in size, and in 1893 leased the building to the town for use as its town hall. It is the towns first town hall, and continues to serve in that capacity, in addition to hosting community events. The building originally housed the towns library in its basement, until 1911 when the adjacent Cotton Free Library was built. The building underwent significant restoration in the 1990s.</p><br>
<p>The Union Meetinghouse  is a historic church on United States Route 7 in Ferrisburg, Vermont. Built in 1840, it is architecturally an eclectic combination of Federal period design with Gothic Revival features. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Union Meetinghouse is one of the most prominent features of Ferrisburg&#39;s small town center, standing facing west at the northeast corner of US 7 and Middlebrook Road. It is a two-story brick building, with a gabled roof and limestone foundation. A two-stage belltower, a replica of the original (destroyed by fire in 1976) rises from the ridgeline, with a belfry featuring ogee-arched louvered openings. The brick of the walls is laid in American bond. The front facade is symmetrical, with two double-door entrances flanking a central tall Gothic-arched window with tracery. The entries are also topped by smaller Gothic windows. Similar windows are found on the building sides. The building originally had box pews, but these were removed in the 19th century in favor of auditorium-style seating.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1840 to serve a number of different religious groups in Ferrisburg. Its basic structure and massing are typical of earlier Federal period churches, with the Gothic windows adding a more recent (for the period) stylistic detail. Over time, the individual congregations built their own sanctuaries, and the use of this building declined. It was acquired by the town in 1898.</p><br>
<p>Union Church, also known as the Union Church of New Haven Mills is a historic church at the junction of River Rd. and East Street in New Haven, Vermont. Built in 1851, it is a fine local example of Greek Revival architecture with added Queen Anne Victorian features, and one of the oldest surviving buildings in a once-thriving mill village. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The Union Church stands prominently at the center of the village of New Haven Mills in central-eastern New Haven, a now-rural village with a modest industrial past. It is a single-story rectangular wood frame structure, with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. A modest square tower, with open belfry and pyramidal roof, rises above the roof. The building corners have pilasters, which rise to an encircling entablature and a fully pedimented gable on the front facade. The front facade is unadorned except for the centered main entrance, which is in a slight recess flanked by pilasters and topped by a corniced entablature. The interior of the sanctuary has rows of original bench pews, and its only illumination is from original kerosene lamps. It has a pressed metal ceiling dating to the late 19th century.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1851 for a congregation established in 1797, which met in a variety of spaces prior to the construction of this building. The village was by the 1840s a thriving industrial center, with the New Haven River lined with sawmills, gristmills, and other industry. The church was built by Eastman Case, a local master builder, and its elements are designed in part on similar features found in other regional churches, and in part from designs published by Asher Benjamin. Most of New Haven Mills&#39; industrial and commercial buildings were destroyed by fires and flooding in the early 20th century, leaving the church as one of its most prominent surviving landmarks.</p><br>
<p>The First Congregational Church and Meetinghouse, also known as the Church of Christ and the Townshend Church, is a historic church at 34 Common Road in Townshend, Vermont. Built in 1790 and restyled in 1840, it is one of the oldest church buildings in continuous use in the state. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002; the congregation was established in 1777, and is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.</p><br>
<h2>Description and history</h2><br>
<p>The First Congregational Church and Meetinghouse is located in the village center of Townshend, on the north side of the common, near the junction of Vermont Routes 30 and 35. It is a two-story wood frame structure, with a gable roof, clapboard siding, and a brick foundation that is partially set on ledge. Its front (east-facing) facade is symmetrical, with three bays articulated by pilasters, supporting a full pediment with a modillioned rake edge. The outer bays have entrances at the ground floor. The second-floor bays are filled with sash windows, each with a lancet-shaped louver above. This detail is repeated in a window in the center of the gable, and in windows on the second floor side elevations. A two-stage tower rises above the facade, with a square first stage, and an octagonal belfry stage above, capped by an octagonal steeple.</p><br>
<p>The church was built in 1790 (although it is not described as completely finished until 1795) as a five bay meetinghouse with the main entrance set on the long side that faces the common (which is used today as a secondary entrance). At that time, the hall had a narrow gallery on the second level. In about 1840 a sixth bay was added, with the tower, and the entrance was reoriented to the eastern facade. At that time the building&#39;s Greek and Gothic Revival characteristics were also added. The church congregation was founded in 1777, and this building was used to house town offices until 1908.</p><br>
