Name/Title
Union Meeting House | Whiting, MaineDescription
From Union Meeting House National Register Nomination Form:
The Union Meeting House in the Washington County town of Whiting, is a locally rare example of a once-common type of nineteenth-century New England religious architecture. Erected in 1836, this symmetrically composed, timber frame building exhibits the proportions, features and composition of a Federal-style meeting house, but also has a prominent Greek- Revival style closed pediment on the fac;ade. Erected to serve both the Congregational and Methodist-Episcopal societies, the building is now the only church in this small, rural town. As the membership in the congregations ebbed and flowed, the church received periodic stylistic updates, including the addition of a belfry and an interior renovation that included tin walls and ceilings and new pews, most likely in the late nineteenth-century. The Union Meeting House is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C, for its local architectural significance, as a good example of rural church architecture from the second quarter of the nineteenth-century. The period of significance reflects the year in which the building was erected, 1836, and the year in which the belfry was added and the interior remodeled, 1904. By virtue of its past history as a building used by a religious body but significant primarily for its architecture, the building meets Criterion Consideration A.
The Union Meeting House is a locally significant example of a Federal and Greek- Revival style rural church of the mid-nineteenth century with early twentieth-century updates. As one of two extant churches in town, the Union Meeting House has been a central structure in the religious history of Whiting, Maine.2 Yet its primary historical significance is architectural: it is a good example of a type of mid-nineteenth century rural Maine church architecture which combines local building traditions with current and emerging stylistic elements. In 1836 the Proprietors of the Union Meeting House, (a local group of subscribers representing two denominations), erected a fairly traditional, rectilinear building, with five timber bents creating a four-section deep, gable front building. On the interior, the southernmost bay defines the entrance vestibule and gallery above, while the remaining three bays define the volume of the sanctuary and frame the original twelve-over-twelve sash windows. The exterior references two architectural styles: the Federal Style that had characterized both residential and ecclesiastical architecture since the late eighteenth century, and the Greek Revival style that emerged in the 1820s. The latter is exhibited in the closed cornice pediment, but the proportions of the building, the boxed eaves, front door entablature, fan-shaped panel, and narrow frieze reference the earlier architectural vocabulary.