Lancet Windows

Chocorua Community Church // 1835

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The First Free Will Baptist Church of Tamworth, New Hampshire, was founded in 1781 and centered around the charming mountain village of Chocorua. Members met for years in private homes, schoolhouses, and even barns until a lot was acquired in 1834 for the congregation and this church built a year later in 1835. The church was remodeled in 1885 to its current form, which likely saw the building raised and the steeple added. The church was renamed in 1921 to the Chocorua Baptist Church and again to the present name, Chocorua Community Church. The Chocorua Community Church is a typical 19th century vernacular New England church with a basic form, gable roofed main block, two-stage belfry tower topped by a spire. The composition of the facades with double doors and blind lancet window above is typical of the vernacular church architecture of the period, and while not architecturally distinctive, the church is significant as a community center of the Chocorua Village of Tamworth.

Captain Abraham Osborn House // 1834

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Built in 1834, this early Greek Revival house with Gothic Revival detailing, sits on Edgartown’s South Water Street, a notable street lined by large mansions built for early whaling captains on Martha’s Vineyard. The residence was built for Abraham Osborn (1798-1865), a whaling captain, soon after his marriage to Eliza Norton. Captain Abraham Osborn owned several whaling ships based out of Martha’s Vineyard and New Bedford, and one of these large vessels, the Ocmulgee, came to an untimely end early in the Civil War. When captaining the ship in September 1862, the Ocmulgee was approached by a ship flying British flags. When it got within speaking range, the British flags were replaced by Confederate colors and the rebel captain took over the ship, which contained 250 barrels of whale oil. The Confederates detained the ships officers and Captain Osborn in chains bringing them aboard their ship, the Alabama, which was known for stealthy operations to damage the economy of the Northern states. The rebels torched the Ocmulgee, forcing Captain Osborn and his crew to watch their profits burn up and sink into the ocean. The crew was detained for a few days and ultimately released near the Fayal Islands where they received help. Captain Osborn returned home and would die just three years later. The Osborn house was later inherited by his son, Abraham Jr., a retired sea captain himself, who eventually converted the large family home into a hotel called Ocean View. A famous guest at his hotel was Alexander Graham Bell, who was on island to study the extensive deafness prevalence for those on the Island. The house has since been converted back to a single-family residence and maintains its stunning Greek Revival entry portico and tripartite window in the gable with shuttered lancet openings.

Litchfield Community Presbyterian Church // 1844

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Litchfield, New Hampshire remained a rural agricultural town on the eastern banks of the Merrimack River from its founding by white settlers until after WWII when it rapidly became a bedroom community for nearby NH cities and Boston. The area’s Presbyterian residents needed a place to worship, separate from the more common congregationalists, and they built this Gothic and Greek Revival style church near the geographic center of town, a stone’s throw from the Merrimack River. The building features lancet windows, tracery, and a two-tiered belfry with classical pilasters and Gothic finials at the tower.