Name/Title
North Baptist Church | 82 High Street, Eastport, Maine | I7-0B2-09 | District #114Entry/Object ID
114Description
This church building was built in 1819 for the First Baptist Society of Eastport that had been established three years earlier in 1816. Charles Peavey is the likely builder of the structure. Long known as the North Baptist Church, a peculiarity of the internal arrangement of the church included heating stoves that were hung in mid-air, attached to the columns which support the roof; and the sexton was obliged to mount some steps to make or replenish the fires. In 1881 the church was raised up and a new vestry space was created in the basement. Beginning in 1916 on the centennial year of the organization of the church, a series of stained glass windows were installed on both sides of the sanctuary space as well as the balcony and front doors. The windows were created by the studio glass firm of Spence, Bell and Company of Boston. Photographs of the stained glass windows can be viewed on the Tides Institute & Museum of Art’s website: https://www.tidesinstitute.org/north-church-stained-glass-windows. Around 1920, a small addition was added the rear of the church. The church building was gifted to the Tides Institute & Museum of Art in 2014. A custom made Schlicker chamber organ (not a church organ), designed for solo and ensemble Renaissance and Baroque music and obtained from Brooklyn, New York, was installed in the spring of 2018 in the rear addition of the building.
From Eastport Walking Tour Brochure, 2010:
66) The North Baptist Church High Street. Although this society is the second oldest, being incorporated in 1816, it was the first to build a church in Eastport. The new church was dedicated December 1, 1819. A peculiarity of the interior was recalled in Kilby's book Eastport and Passamaquoddy. "Instead of placing the heating apparatus on the floor, or beneath it, as is now the custom (1888), the stoves were hung in mid-air, attached to the columns which support the roof; and the sexton was obliged to mount some steps to make or replenish the fires."
From Kilby's Eastport and Passamaquoddy (1888):
NORTH CHRISTIAN CHURCH. In Weston's History, it is stated that the church then known as the North Baptist was organized April 13, 1816. At first, services were held in the Old South School-house, where other religious societies met before and afterward. It was also frequently called the Free-will Baptist, to distinguish it from the older or Calvinist Baptist church. Though the second in order of time, it was the first in town to complete its house of worship, built at the head of Washington Street, which was dedicated Dec. I, 1819, the pastor. Elder Samuel Rand, preaching the sermon. A bequest of $500 was received from the estate of Mrs. Phoebe Peavey, widow of Captain John N. Peavey, toward the cost of the building. John Burgin, Charles Peavey, and Jerry Burgin formed the building committee. A peculiarity of the internal arrangement is remembered. Instead of placing the heating apparatus on the floor, or beneath it, as is now the custom, the stoves were hung in mid-air, attached to the columns which support the roof; and the sexton was obliged to mount some steps to make or replenish the fires. The society was incorporated under an act of the General Court of Massachusetts, Feb. 12, 1820, as the "First Baptist Society of Eastport." The following persons were named in the act of incorporation: Sylvanus Appleby, John Babcock, John Burgin, Jerry Burgin, Alexander Capen, Thomas Haycock, John Hinkley, John C. Lincoln, Robert Mowe, Darius Olmstead, Ethel Olmstead, Charles Peavey, John Shackford, and William Shackford. For several years, evening and prayer meetings were held in a room fitted up in the basement of Mr, Warren Hathaway's house at North End. Afterward, a vestry hall was built on Green Street, which was occupied until the church building was raised, and convenient accommodations prepared for similar purposes in the basement; and the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic now occupies the former vestry. The present denominational connection of the society is with the religious body holding the simple name of "Christians." Organization in 1888. Pastor, Rev. A. G. Hammond. Deacons, George P. Andrews, John A. Capen. Church clerk, George P. Andrews. Sunday-school superintendent, Fremont A. Bibber. Trustees, William Newcomb, William T. Spates, E. S. Martin. Parish clerk, Thomas M. Bibber. Treasurer, John Higgins.
( ) From Eastport Sentinel, May 25, 1881, p.2,c.6: Advertisement:
PROPOSALS!
SEADED PROPOSALS will be received at the office of R.B. Clark, in Eistport, until Wednesday, June 15th, at 12 o’clock, for raising the building and finishing the outside of the basement of the North Christian Meeting House, situated at the head of Washington street, in said Eastport, according to plans and specifications to be seen at this office.
The Committee reserves the right to reject any and all bids.
JOHN N. COGGINS, }
W.C. NEWCOMB. } Building
JOHN HIGGINS, }
R.B. CLARK, } Committee.
E.W. RUMERY. }
( ) From Eastport Sentinel, August 17, 1881, p.3,c.1: “The work of raising the North Church is being successfully carried on. A vestry will be built underneath the church.”
( ) From Eastport Seftinel, September 21, 1881, p.3,c.2: “BUILDING NOTES AND IMPROVEMENTS....The work of building a new vestry under the North Christian Church is progressing slowly."
( ) From Eastport Sentinel, October 12, 1881, p.3,c.2: “The Ladies of the North Church and Society will hold a supper and apron sale in their new vestry to-morrow evening the 12th inst. Supper from 6 to 8 o’clock. Admission and supper, 25 cts.”
