The Little Brown Church rests on a granite block foundation on the bottom and has a steeply pitched gable roof on the top. At the front of the building, at the peak of the roof, is a small stepped square bell tower and steeple, atop which is what appears to be a sturgeon weathervane. Somewhat rare, the church is still clad in board and batten siding.
Established in 1853 as a nondenominational church, the building was erected in 1853 or 1854. It was briefly used by both Baptists and Adventists, falling into disrepair in the mid 1800s. Restored in the 1870s, it has since hosted services somewhat regularly to the present.
Today services are held in the summer months by guest ministers, with concerts being hosted in the church as well through the summer. The building may be rented for events such as weddings.
THE LITTLE BROWN CHURCH of Round Pond was established in 1863 [1853?] as a non denominational Church. At that time ship building was the principal industry on the coast of Maine. In one season three shipyards were operating in this small village. Because of this, many new families moved to the area and the population rapidly grew. Two Churches were established in that same year. The Brown Church has continued as a non denominational church with guest ministers throughout the summer months.
From The Little Brown Church
Union Church - Little Brown Church
Erected in 1853, the Union Church is a modest Gothic Revival style wooden frame building that features board-and-batten siding and pointed arch windows. It is one of only a handful of such church buildings that survive in Maine. The church is eligible for nomination to the National Register under criteria C. Criteria
consideration A also applies because of the building's religious function.
Little has been written about the history of the Union Church in Bristol. By one account the church building was dedicated late in 1853 (a second source gives the date 1854), and the congregation was initially served by the Rev. William A. Drew. His successor, Rev. J. H. Howe, was pastor until 1860. For a brief time thereafter, the church building was used by the Baptists and Adventists, but it appears to have fallen into disrepair in the years during and immediately after the Civil War. Renewed interest in the church during the 1870s resulted in repairs to the building under the leadership of the Union Sewing Society. The local residents
were subsequently served by a variety of pastors during the summer months, a tradition that holds to this day.
Church records indicate that on March 1,1853, a committee comprised of seven local men was formed to build the meeting house. Committee members James A. Raitt drafted the frame of the church whereas R.A.
Brown provided the plans for the interior and the pews. The other members were Samuel Hines, Steven Harding, Theodore Pool, Samuel Blaisdell, Joshua Thompson, and Parker Mears. The records make no
reference to the involvement of an architect or master builder. (A notation in the file states that Montgomery Orff was the architect, but no information has been found about him and his name does not appear in the church records.)
Although the general scale and massing of the Union Church is not unlike others that still exist in Maine, its board-and-batten siding, the configuration of its pointed arch windows and doorway, and the preservation of its original exterior and interior color schemes are notable characteristics, particularly in small communities such as Bristol. Wooden Gothic Revival style religious buildings that employ this combination of features are quite rare in the state, and judging by the design of extant nineteenth century churches and documentary
sources they always have been.
From the NRHP Nomination Form