The Old Stone Congregational Church, also known as the First Congregational Church of Lyons, is a historic church in

Lyons, Colorado The Town of Lyons is a Statutory Town in Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 2033 at the 2010 United States Census, up from 1585 at the 2000 United States Census. Lyons is located at the confluence of North St. Vr ...

, built in 1894-5 and 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 ...

in 1976. The First Congregational Church was organized under the sponsorship of the First Congregational Church of

Longmont The City of Longmont is a home rule municipality located in Boulder and Weld counties, Colorado, United States. Longmont is located northeast of the county seat of Boulder and north-northwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. Longmont' ...

in 1889, less than a decade after E. S. Lyon arrived in the area from

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

and bought of land that include the original townsite of Lyons. Construction of the church building, on the northwest corner of 4th and High Streets, began in 1894 and was completed on September 23, 1895. The minister and members of the congregation contributed much of the necessary labor, in addition to money and materials. The principal building material was

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

that was locally quarried,

cut Cut may refer to: Common uses * The act of cutting, the separation of an object into two through acutely-directed force ** A type of wound ** Cut (archaeology), a hole dug in the past ** Cut (clothing), the style or shape of a garment ** Cut (ea ...

by hand and laid in horizontal courses of irregularly sized blocks. The National Register nomination notes that much of the work on the building was done by master stonecutters with the result that the "cutting and fitting f the stoneis exceptionally well executed." The walls are thick. The facade is asymmetrical with the church's principal door leading into the base of a single tower. The door has a

semicircular arch In mathematics (and more specifically geometry), a semicircle is a one-dimensional locus of points that forms half of a circle. The full arc of a semicircle always measures 180° (equivalently, radians, or a half-turn). It has only one line o ...

of radiating stone

voussoir A voussoir () is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault. Although each unit in an arch or vault is a voussoir, two units are of distinct functional importance: the keystone and the springer. The ...

s. Central to the facade are a pair of windows topped by horizontal stone lintels. A decorative feature of the facade is the large arch of voussoirs which rises above the windows. In the

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

is an

ocular Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and con ...

ventilation opening framed by voussoirs and set with louvres. The tower rises to a stone course at the height of the gable, above which is a louvred chamber with a "candle-snuffer" roof. For more than ten years after the completion of the building (until a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

church was built in town), this was the only church in Lyons. At the time of its National Register listing, the congregation was affiliated with the

United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximatel ...

, but it no longer identifies itself with that denomination.

References

External links

{{coord, 40.22537, -105.26990, display=title
First Congregational Church, Lyons, Colo.
Denver Public Library Digital Collections

What's That in Colorado Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado Churches in Boulder County, Colorado Churches completed in 1895 Congregational churches in Colorado National Register of Historic Places in Boulder County, Colorado