United Church Of Christ In Keene
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The United Church of Christ in Keene (also known as The First Church or Church at the Head of the Square) is a historic Congregational church at 23 Central Square in
Keene, New Hampshire Keene is a city in, and the seat of Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 23,047 at the 2020 census, down from 23,409 at the 2010 census. Keene is home to Keene State College and Antioch University New England. I ...
, United States. First built in 1786, and then moved and restyled in the 19th century, it is a prominent visual and architectural landmark in downtown Keene. The church and its adjacent parish house were 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 1982.


Description and history

The United Church of Christ in Keene is sited prominently in downtown Keene, on the northern side of its Central Square. It has an elaborately decorated front facade, with the main entrance at the center in a rounded arch set in a projecting
pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...
. The pavilion is fronted by fluted
Corinthian columns The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...
, with paired
pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s on the facade on either side of the pavilion. The columns and pilasters rise to an entablature and modillioned cornice. A tower in height rises through five stages to a spire and cross. The oldest portion of this church is its timber frame, a structure that was built in 1786 as the town's fourth meeting house. In 1828 the meeting house was rotated and moved, nearly to its present location, and the
Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...
temple front with
Doric columns The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...
was added, as was the tower and steeple. These alterations were supposedly inspired by the recent (1817–18) construction of the Third Fitzwilliam Meetinghouse. In 1859-60 the church was again moved, this time a short distance to make room for an enlarged
sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a sa ...
, as designed by the
Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
firm of
Boyden & Ball Elbridge Boyden (1810–1898) was a prominent 19th-century American architect from Worcester, Massachusetts who designed numerous civil and public buildings throughout New England and other parts of the United States. Perhaps his best known works ...
. The building exterior has been little altered since; the steeple was recreated from photographs after the original was toppled by the
New England Hurricane of 1938 The 1938 New England Hurricane (also referred to as the Great New England Hurricane and the Long Island Express Hurricane) was one of the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclones to strike Long Island, New York, and New England. The stor ...
. In 1924 a two-story brick parish house was built next to the church.


See also

*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Cheshire County, New Hampshire This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Cheshire County, New Ha ...


References


External links


Church website
{{NRHP in Cheshire County, New Hampshire United Church of Christ churches in New Hampshire Congregational churches in New Hampshire Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire Churches completed in 1860 Churches in Cheshire County, New Hampshire Buildings and structures in Keene, New Hampshire National Register of Historic Places in Cheshire County, New Hampshire