Historic Church

Trinity Episcopal Church of Wrentham // 1872

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Overlooking the Town Green in Wrentham, Massachusetts, the Trinity Episcopal Church of Wrentham stands as the town’s finest example of Victorian Gothic architecture and the community’s oldest Episcopal church. Episcopalians in Wrentham first began worshipping in 1863 and in less than ten years, quickly grew in numbers from just two members to so many that a church building was needed to house the congregation. The site on East Street was purchased and architect, Shepard S. Woodcock, was hired to furnish plans for the new building. Completed in 1872, the Victorian Gothic design features all of the hallmarks of the style, including the steeply pitched roof, pointed arch windows and entry doors, buttresses, and towering steeple.

Wrentham Congregational Church // 1834

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The Wrentham Congregational Church is the oldest house of worship in the suburban community, and the fourth consecutive meetinghouse for the congregation at the town center that was originally established in 1692. The frontier town grew slowly as a largely agricultural community and three houses of worship were built nearby the town common until 1833, when it was decided that a church worthy of its historic congregation be built. It is not clear who designed the Greek Revival church, but timbers were transported to town in 1834 for the new edifice which was completed that year. Over the following century, the church was expanded and modernized, all-the-while retaining its historic character. The four-stage steeple toppled during the New England Hurricane of 1938, and was rebuilt. The congregation remains active in the community and is a visual landmark at the town center.

Old Round Church // 1812

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The Old Round Church in Richmond, Vermont, was built in 1812 on the village common to serve the town’s many congregations as a union church. The building is a master-work of housewright William Rhodes, who documented its construction in his journal and is a vernacular, yet grand Federal period church. While known as the Round Church, the building is actually a sixteen-sided hexdecagon with shallow angle cuts to create the rounded form, so the term round church sounds a little better than the Old Hexdecagon Church! Fifty feet in diameter, the two-story church rises to a hipped roof which is surmounted by a two-stage octagonal belfry with a bellcast cap and weathervane. Within a few decades of the church’s opening, the founding denominations began to move out, building their own houses of worship, and in 1880, the Old Round Church reverted to the Town of Richmond and continued in use as the town’s meeting hall until 1973, at which time safety concerns forced its closure to the public. The Richmond Historical Society was formed in 1973, shortly before the church had to be closed and in 1976, the town deeded the church to the society, who then gathered funds to restore the building. The Old Round Church remains one of the most unique architectural designs in Vermont and is always a treat to drive by in all seasons. The beloved building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2000, one of just 18 in Vermont.

Hopedale Unitarian Church // 1898

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The Hopedale Unitarian Church, also known as the Draper Memorial Church, is located in the former industrial village of Hopedale, Massachusetts, and is one of the finest examples of the Neo-Gothic style in the state. The church was funded by brothers George Albert and Eben S. Draper of the Draper Corporation, the largest employer in town, offering to build the new edifice as a memorial to their parents, George and Hannah Draper. The church replaced an earlier, wood-frame church, built on the site in 1860 by supporters of Adin Ballou, a founder of the Hopedale Community, a utopian community that eventually failed. The Drapers hired Boston architect, Edwin J. Lewis, an active Unitarian who had designed several churches around New England by this time. His plan was “English Gothic of the Perpendicular period” made of Milford granite with Indiana limestone trimmings and a roof of green slate. At the interior, roof trusses were left exposed “as in the old English Parish churches” with oak finishes and flooring and memorial stained glass windows by prominent artists. The church remains a visual and historical landmark for the community with an active congregation who preserve the significant building.

First Methodist Church of Warren // 1844

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Located next door to the diminutive Easterbrooks Cottage on Church Street, the First Methodist Church of Warren, Rhode Island, stands as one of the community’s great 19th century buildings. Constructed in 1844 with its iconic steeple completed a year later, the Methodist Church is a great example of a vernacular, Greek Revival style with prominent, south-facing portico with four two-story Doric columns supporting the entablature and pediment above. Built by Perez Mason (1802-1881), a carpenter and later amateur architect, the church stands out for its iconic five-stage steeple, which has long served as a sort of landmark for sailors arriving into the harbor nearby.

Church of the Advent // 1878

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The Church of the Advent in Beacon Hill, Boston, is a landmark example of a church designed in the Victorian Gothic style with strong English influence. The congregation, established in 1844, purchased a large corner lot at Brimmer and Mount Vernon streets on the newly made filled land west of Charles Street in Beacon Hill Flat, to construct their new church. In 1875, John Hubbard Sturgis, a Boston architect and parishioner, began designing the red brick with sandstone-trimmed church set on a corner lot with dominant corner tower and octagonal steeple. Construction began in phases beginning in 1878 and took years until the steeple was completed in 1888. Before its completion, John H. Sturgis died and his nephew, Richard Clipston Sturgis, oversaw the completion of the church, which became somewhat of a memorial to his late uncle. Following the completion of the Church of the Advent, Sturgis’ widow, extended family and clients donated a major portion of the interior art, stained glass windows, and furnishings. The polychromatic exterior in red and charred brick mixed with sandstone trim appears to have been inspired by his designs for the original Boston Museum of Fine Arts (1876, demolished in 1911.) The Church of the Advent in Boston is one of the finest ecclesiastical buildings in New England and is the master-work of one of America’s great architects.

First Parish Church, Wayland // 1814

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The First Parish Church of Wayland, Massachusetts, is an iconic church that displays the typical early 19th-century meetinghouse form with Federal-style elaboration. Built in 1814, the church is two-stories with a five-bay gabled-front structure with a projecting enclosed portico of three entrance bays, and a four-stage bell tower that rises above the façade. Today known as Wayland, the town was originally called East Sudbury, after it split away from the western parish in 1780. In 1835, members of town meeting voted to rename East Sudbury “Wayland” in honor of Dr. Francis Wayland, a temperance advocate, abolitionist, and then president of Brown University. The First Parish Church of Wayland was built by Andrews Palmer of Newburyport, who used an Asher Benjamin design. The bell was cast by Paul Revere and Sons and first lifted into the bell tower in 1814. The property also includes the historic, twelve-bay horse/carriage sheds where parishioners would “park” their horses and carriages while attending services.

Derby United Methodist Church // 1894

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The former Derby United Methodist Church (now the Ghana United Methodist Church) is located at the northern edge of the Town Green in Derby, Connecticut, and is a great example of a ecclesiastical building constructed in the Romanesque Revival style. Its large round arches, tall square tower, and heavy detailing in brick and brownstone place it in the Romanesque Revival mode, all with stained glass throughout. The church was built in 1894 and dedicated in early 1895. The stately church building was designed by George Washington Kramer (1847-1938), an architect who designed many Methodist churches in the midwest and east coast.

First Congregational Church of Derby // 1821

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Derby, Connecticut was settled by colonists in 1642 as a trading post with local Native people under the name Paugasset. The community was eventually named after Derby, England, in 1675 and incorporated 100 years later in 1775. Like all communities in New England, it was required to have a meeting house, where religious services and town business would take place. Derby had its first meeting house built in 1681, a rustic, square structure which was eventually replaced with a new meeting house on “The Common”, now the East Derby Green. The building served its purpose for over 100 years, with sermons led by Rev. Daniel Humphreys (1706-1787) for 54 years. In that church, his son, David Humphreys (1752-1818) was baptized, he later became George Washington’s aide and most trusted general, later becoming the first presidential speech-writer. That meetinghouse was eventually outgrown, and the present Congregational Church of Derby was built on its present site on the eastern banks of the Naugatuck River in 1821. The Federal style church building was built by Williams and Barnum from Brookfield, who likely utilized plan books by Asher Benjamin for the finishes. The Congregational Church of Derby has watched as the commercial “downtown” of the city shifted to the other side of the river and has stood here for over 200 years as a landmark of “old Derby”.

Bow Bog Meetinghouse // 1835

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The Bow Bog Meetinghouse in Bow, New Hampshire, was built in 1835 for the First Methodist Episcopal Church and Society in town. Designed in the Greek and Gothic revival styles, the traditional form and paired entries with two stage belfry is adorned by finials and pilasters, showcasing an elegant blending of these two styles. built by George Washington Wheeler for the First Methodist Episcopal Church and Society of Bow in 1835. Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science Church, mentioned Reverend Orlando Hinds as a contributor to her early religious teachings. She maintained close ties with this Church, donating funds for the bell in 1903. The Church provided religious instruction and social activities for 116 years and in 1951, the Church was closed and the Bow Bog Meeting House Society acquired the building. In 1970, they restored it to nearly its original condition, and it was acquired by the town in 1985.