Dexter Universalist Church (Dexter, Maine)

Dexter Universalist Church, or the First Universalist Church of Dexter, is a historic church on Church Street in Dexter, Maine. Built in the 1820s and restyled in the 1860s, it is a distinctive work of Boston, Massachusetts architect Thomas Silloway. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.[1]

Dexter Universalist Church
LocationChurch St., Dexter, Maine
Coordinates45°1′29″N 69°17′22″W
Area1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built1867
ArchitectThomas Silloway
NRHP reference No.85001258[1]
Added to NRHPJune 20, 1985

Description and history

The Dexter Universalist Church stands in Dexter's town center, at the northeast corner of Hall Street and Church Street (Maine State Routes 7 and 23). It is a two-story wood frame structure, with mostly clapboard siding and a front-facing gable roof. In front of the main block is a projecting hip-roofed and flush-boarded vestibule area, from which a multi-stage square tower rises to a belfry and steeple. The vestibule is three bays wide, with narrow segmented-arch windows on either side of the entrance, which is set within a large segmented-arch opening at the front of a projecting gable-roofed section with a dentillated cornice. The interior walls and ceiling of the main sanctuary are finished in pressed metal.[2]

The main body of the church was built about 1828-29, but most of the building's styling comes from a major renovation conducted 1867-70 from a design by Boston architect Thomas Silloway. Although Silloway (probably best known for his design of the Vermont State House) was a prolific church designer, this is one of only three relatively unaltered instances of his work left in the state of Maine.[2]

See also

References

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