The Marstons Mills Community Church, formerly the Methodist Church, is a historic church building in the
Marstons Mills village of
Barnstable, Massachusetts
The Town of Barnstable ( ) is a town in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the county seat of Barnstable County. Barnstable is the largest community, both in land area and population, on Cape Cod, and is one of thirteen Massachusetts municipaliti ...
. The white clapboard church was built in the town of
Yarmouth
Yarmouth may refer to:
Places Canada
*Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia
**Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
**Municipality of the District of Yarmouth
**Yarmouth (provincial electoral district)
**Yarmouth (electoral district)
* Yarmouth Township, Ontario
*New ...
, and moved to Marstons Mills in 1830. Its small belfry tower was added sometime between 1888 and 1908, around the same time it acquired some of its Queen Anne stylistic elements.
The church was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1987 for its architecture and for its role in community history.
Description and history
The Marstons Mills Community Church is set on the south side of Main Street, a short way northeast of its junction with Cotuit Road (
Massachusetts Route 149). It is a single-story wood-frame structure with a front-gable roof and clapboard siding. A gable-roofed entry vestibule projects from the main facade, with a double-door frame by a simple surround and a fully pedimented gable. The square church tower rises partly through the vestibule and partly through the main block, with a series of sections, some stepped in and others stepped out, and a belfry stage that has paired round-arch louvers on each side, and is topped by a flared pyramidal roof and weathervane. The windows flanking the vestibule have decorative sashes, a Queen Anne embellishment also appearing on the door windows.
[
The Methodist congregation of Marstons Mills was organized in 1826, although there had been less formal meetings in private spaces at least as early as 1819. This church building was hauled by oxen from ]Yarmouth
Yarmouth may refer to:
Places Canada
*Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia
**Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
**Municipality of the District of Yarmouth
**Yarmouth (provincial electoral district)
**Yarmouth (electoral district)
* Yarmouth Township, Ontario
*New ...
in 1830 to serve as its sanctuary. Over the 150 years it went through a number of alterations, the most visible being the addition of Queen Anne styling to the tower and of a surplus military barracks as a parish hall. In 1968 the Marstons Mills congregation merged with that of Osterville, and this building was closed.[ It was revived in 1981 as the nondenominational Marstons Mills Community Church.
]
See also
*
References
External links
Marstons Mills Community Church web site
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
1830 establishments in Massachusetts
Buildings and structures in Barnstable, Massachusetts
Churches completed in 1830
Churches in Barnstable County, Massachusetts
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Methodist churches in Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Barnstable, Massachusetts