The First Congregational Church, currently known as the Richmond Center for the Performing Arts, is a church building located at 69619 Parker in

Richmond, Michigan Richmond is a city within Metro Detroit in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 5,735 at the 2010 census. Most of the city is located in Macomb County, though there is a small portion in neighboring St. Clair County. The city is ad ...

, and is the oldest public building in the city. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1975.

History

In 1871, a group of Richmond settlers formed the First Congregational Church. The congregation's first church was built in 1872, and in 1887, the congregation hired local builder Charles W. McCauley to build a second church. In 1973, the congregation of the First Congregational Church merged with nearby St. Paul's Evangelical and Reformed Church, and the building was sold to the Richmond Community Theatre. The theatre group restored the exterior of the church, and adapted the interior for use as a theatre. As of 2011, the building houses the Richmond Center for the Performing Arts and is administered by the Richmond Board of Education.

Description

Richmond's First Congregational Church is a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

structure constructed of red brick on a

fieldstone Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...

foundation. The front facade is asymmetrical, with a square tower with wooden belfry standing to one side of the entrance. Stepped buttresses and lancet windows containing tracery decorate the exterior, making the building a significant and well-reserved example of 19th-century Gothic Revival architecture.

References

External links

Richmond Community Theatre
{{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Macomb County, Michigan Gothic Revival church buildings in Michigan Churches completed in 1887 Michigan State Historic Sites Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan