First Congregational Church is a congregation of the

United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a socially liberal mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Restorationist, Continental Reformed, and Lutheran t ...

located in

Eldora, Iowa Eldora is a city and the county seat of Hardin County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2,663 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the county seat of Hardin County. History Eldora was platted in 1853. It was i ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The congregation was organized in 1868 and the church building was individually listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1996. In 2010 it was included as a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

in the Eldora Downtown Historic District in 2010.

Architecture

The church building was designed in the late

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

style by Charles Durham and was built from 1893–1894. The church is constructed of LeGrand hammer dressed

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

. It measures 47 by 90 feet and the tower rises 57 and a half feet above the

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

line. The door sills and steps are made of blue stone and the interior is finished in antique oak and hard pine.

Stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

windows help to illuminate the interior.

References

External links

Church website
Religious organizations established in 1868 Churches completed in 1894 United Church of Christ churches in Iowa 19th-century United Church of Christ church buildings Romanesque Revival church buildings in Iowa Eldora, Iowa Churches in Hardin County, Iowa Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa 1868 establishments in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Hardin County, Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa {{Iowa-church-stub

Architecture

See also

References

External links