New Sharon Congregational Church

New Sharon Congregational Church
Location 21 Cape Cod Hill Road, New Sharon, Maine
Coordinates 44°38′10″N 70°0′50″W / 44.63611°N 70.01389°W / 44.63611; -70.01389Coordinates: 44°38′10″N 70°0′50″W / 44.63611°N 70.01389°W / 44.63611; -70.01389
Area 1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built 1845
Architectural style Mid 19th Century Revival
NRHP Reference # 85001261[1]
Added to NRHP June 20, 1985

The New Sharon Congregational Church is a historic church at 21 Cape Cod Hill Road in New Sharon, Maine. Built in 1845, this brick structure is an example of Greek Revival architecture, and stands as a focal point of the rural town's center. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.[1] The church is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

Description and history

The New Sharon Congregational Church is a rectangular brick structure, facing southeast on a rise overlooking the residential center of the town of New Sharon. It has a front-facing gable roof, with a clapboarded pediment. Its tower, rising from the ridge behind the main facade, begins with a square stage that has wide lancet-arch windows divided by a thin vertical strip, finished in clapboards and topped by a low balustrade and corner turrets. The second stage is an octagonal belfry with lancet-arched louvers, topped by a thin railing with turreted posts. A slightly bell-cast octagonal dome and weathervane top the tower. The main facade has two symmetrically-placed entrances and a tall raised window at the center. The only ornamentation in the brickwork are projecting pillars and entablature at the corners and roofline.[2]

The church was built in 1845 to replace an earlier wood-frame building destroyed by fire. This older building had been built in 1816 as a common meeting house for four different denominations; the Baptists, Methodists, and Unitarians had all eventually built their own buildings, leaving the original with the Congregationalists. The rise the building stands on includes a large grassy area, which is the nearest thing New Sharon has to a town common.[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 "NRHP nomination for New Sharon Congregational Church" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 2015-02-16.
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