The Union Church of Northeast Harbor is a historic church at 21 Summit Road in

Northeast Harbor, Maine Northeast Harbor is a village on Mount Desert Island, located in the town of Mount Desert in Hancock County, Maine, United States. The original settlers, the Someses and Richardsons, arrived around 1761. The village has a significant summe ...

. Designed by

Peabody and Stearns Peabody & Stearns was a premier architectural firm in the Eastern United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the firm consisted of Robert Swain Peabody (1845–1917) and John Goddard Stearns J ...

and built in 1887, it is a notable local example of Shingle style architecture. 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. The congregation is 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 approximately 4 ...

History and description

The church congregation was established in 1883, with the first meetings being held in a local one room schoolhouse. In 1886, the 100 member congregation—a mix of 65 summer and 35 full-time residents—formally organized as the Union Church Association. They acquired the land for the building from Samuel N. Gilpatrick, who had donated the land. The Association formed a building committee which consisted of

Charles William Eliot Charles William Eliot (March 20, 1834 – August 22, 1926) was an American academic who was president of Harvard University from 1869 to 1909the longest term of any Harvard president. A member of the prominent Eliot family of Boston, he transfo ...

, a summer resident, in addition to brothers Danforth and Ansel Manchester. in 1887, the committee chose the noted

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

firm of

, one of

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

's leading architectural firms of the period, to design the new church building. In 1889, the building was completed in and dedicated on July 17, 1889. The cost of the project and construction totaled $17,989.39. Peabody and Stearns were also responsible for alterations to the transept gable ends made in 1913, costing $2,314.82. This church was highlighted among those built along Maine's seacoast for its particularly organic appearance in relationship to its surroundings and Scandinavian influence. The Union Church is set on the northeast side of Summit Road, just north of its junction with Joy Road in a residential area of Northeast Harbor, on Schoolhouse Ledge. It is a

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described ...

structure, built out of stone and wood. Most of the structure is built out of

glacial till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

, with dressed granite corner

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

, and stone

buttresses A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (si ...

. The end of the

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

is finished in vertical

board-and-batten A batten is most commonly a strip of solid material, historically wood but can also be of plastic, metal, or fiberglass. Battens are variously used in construction, sailing, and other fields. In the lighting industry, battens refer to linea ...

siding, and the roof is finished in wood shingles. A squat stone tower rises above the southeastern end of the building. The street-facing façade of the church presents its long axis, with the long nave to the left, and the main entrance just to the right of the south transept, sheltered by a buttressed porch.

References

External links

United Church of Christ, Northeast Harbor web site
{{Authority control Churches in Hancock County, Maine Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Churches completed in 1887 19th-century churches in the United States Shingle Style church buildings National Register of Historic Places in Hancock County, Maine Shingle Style architecture in Maine Peabody and Stearns buildings

History and description

See also

References

External links