Victorian Church

Riverside Methodist Church, Porter // 1883

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The focal point of the riverside village of Kezar Falls in Porter, Maine, is this large frame church building with prominent siting and grand proportions. This is the Riverside Methodist Church, built in 1883 in the Stick/Eastlake style by Portland architect Charles H. Kimball. The first Methodist services held in the town of Porter were in 1833, when a church was formed in the small town. Soon after 1839, a gable-roofed meetinghouse with tall lancet windows was erected near where the present church stands. The original church still stands, but in a much-altered form and was used as a local fire station. The church remains owned by local Methodists and is well-preserved.

Southport Congregational Church // 1875

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Southport was and still is a part of Fairfield, Connecticut, but it has long been very different from the geographic center of town. Largely due to distance, Fairfield Congregationalists in the Southport area of town sought to establish a new parish to worship closer to home. By the 1840s, their request was granted and a small wood-frame Greek Revival house of worship was built in 1843. By 1871, the increase in population and wealth in the village necessitated a new, larger church. The congregation hired the architectural team of Lambert and Bunnell who made a huge statement here! It is constructed of granite ashlar masonry with a steeply pitched roof and soaring spires.

Versailles United Methodist Church // 1876

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After the Civil War, the Village of Versailles’ Congregational Church was seeing less attendance and its deathknell was a fire which destroyed the building in 1870. That next year, a vote was taken by members of the Congregational Church as to a preference for their denomination. A majority voted for Methodist Episcopal and asked the New England Conference to appoint a Pastor for the new church. Funds were gathered and this church was opened in 1876, in the Italianate and Victorian Gothic styles. The building sits upon a raised brick foundation with small windows on the facade. In 1887, the Versailles church was linked with Baltic and Greenville (Norwich) the following year.

First Reformed Church, Schenectady // 1863

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The First Reformed Church of Schenectady is the oldest congregation in the city. Founded by Dutch settlers, Schenectady’s first colonists, the first church lasted over a decade until it burned in the Schenectady Massacre in 1690, when a party of more than 200 French and allied Mohawk warriors attacked the unguarded community of Schenectady, destroying most of the homes, and killing or capturing most of its inhabitants. Sixty residents were killed, including 11 enslaved Africans. An expanding congregation after, outgrew its second and third buildings, replacing them with larger structures. The fourth was lost in Schenectady’s Great Fire of 1861, causing yet another building campaign. The present church building, an architectural landmark in Gothic design, was completed by the highly regarded Victorian-gothic architect Edward Tuckerman Potter in 1863. Potter is also known for his designs of the Nott Memorial Building (previously featured), in Schenectady, and Mark Twain’s home in Hartford, CT. A fire in the church gutted it in 1948, but the community at large banded together to fund the restoration efforts of the amazing architectural landmark.

Trinity Methodist Church // 1878

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Located on Trinity Park in Wesleyan Grove (aka the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association), this 1878 church served the year round Methodist community in Oak Bluffs. The Trinity Methodist Church is a towered, Victorian Gothic structure of some distinction. Edward M. Hyde, a Methodist minister who had trained in architecture and art, designed it. The property that the church and Parish House sit on belongs to the Association, but the buildings are maintained by the congregation. Interestingly, should the congregation disband, the buildings would return to the Association.