The Union Church, also known locally as the Little Brown Church, is a historic church on

Maine State Route 32 State Route 32 (abbreviated SR 32) is part of Maine's system of numbered state highways, located in the southern coastal part of the state. It runs from an intersection with SR 130 in Bristol north to Windsor where it ends at U.S. Route 2 ...

in Round Pond, a village of

Bristol, Maine Bristol, known from 1632 to 1765 as Pemaquid (; today a village within the town) is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,834 at the 2020 census. A fishing and resort area, Bristol includes the villages of New Har ...

. Built in 1853, it is a distinctive local example of

Carpenter Gothic Carpenter Gothic, also sometimes called Carpenter's Gothic or Rural Gothic, is a North American architectural style-designation for an application of Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massing applied to wooden structures ...

architecture, and one of the few of this type of church in the entire state. It 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 1998.

Description and history

The Union Church stands on the east side of SR 32 in the village of Round Pond, a short way south of its junction with Back Shore Road. It is a single-story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof, vertical board siding, and a granite foundation. The roof is topped by a two-stage square tower, whose upper stage houses a belfry with pointed-arch louvered openings. The tower is capped by a pyramidal roof with a finial at its peak. Windows are sash, set in pointed-arch openings with multi-light fixed windows in the arch, and a molded hood above. The main entrance, at the center of the west-facing front facade, is set in a similar opening. The building interior retains some original features, but much of it dates to a turn-of-the-20th-century renovation. with The church was built in 1853 for what was a mixed congregation, and was eventually also used by Baptist and

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventism, Adventist Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the Names of the days of the week#Numbered days of the week, seventh day of the ...

congregations in the 19th century. It fell into disuse during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, and was again revived as a non-denominational summer church in the 1870s. Although other Gothic Revival churches exist in the state, there are few that are built on a modest scale out of wood, and the others that survive in good condition were architect designed.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Churches in Lincoln County, Maine Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Gothic Revival church buildings in Maine Churches completed in 1853 19th-century churches in the United States Bristol, Maine National Register of Historic Places in Lincoln County, Maine

Description and history

See also

References