The First Baptist Church of Bowdoin and Coombs Cemetery are an historic church and cemetery in
Bowdoin, Maine
Bowdoin is a town in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,136 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland– Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area.
History
Bowdoin was part of a t ...
. The church, a modest transitional
Federal style
Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...
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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.
Description and history
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
Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...
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.
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.
[
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
Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...
an endowment for its maintenance.[ The college has since transferred the endowment and responsibility for the property's care to the local historical society.
]
See also
*
References
External links
Bowdoin Historical Society web site
*
{{National Register of Historic Places
Baptist cemeteries in the United States
Baptist churches in Maine
Cemeteries in Sagadahoc County, Maine
Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
Churches completed in 1839
Churches in Sagadahoc County, Maine
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
Federal architecture in Maine
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
National Register of Historic Places in Sagadahoc County, Maine
Cemeteries established in the 1830s