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 Whiting Village Church, ... named to National Register... Posted by:  T0SHEA
N 44° 47.475 W 067° 10.527
19T E 644323 N 4961380
Better known recently as the Whiting Community Church, this old wood frame church has stood in Whiting village for 180 years, as of 2016.
Waymark Code: WMR0ZT
Location: Maine, United States
Date Posted: 04/25/2016
Views: 1
Not yet on the National Register of Historic Places web page, the church was listed in the register April 11, 2014. Just one month later the Bangor Daily News published an article on the church's achieving National Historic Site status. It is reproduced in part below.
It was 1833 when the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and of
the Congregational society agreed to jointly build a church in Whiting Village at a projected cost of $1,000. The building was completed in 1836 to be used in a more or less equitable manner by the two congregations.
Much of the building is original, including the exterior windows. Built in the simple meeting house style, the church was built without a belfry or steeple, a situation which was rectified in 1904. In that year the interior was redecorated and the belfry and steeple added. The only previous changes had been a renovation of the interior in 1866, while more small renovations took place later, in 1969, 1971 and 1972.
At the rear of the church is the Whiting Village Cemetery, established in 1805 and still in use by the town. In the cemetery are the remains of Boston Tea Party activist, later Whiting resident, patriot Colonel John Crane, born in Braintree, Massachusetts on December 7, 1744. Crane was given a land grant at Whiting Village on which he settled. His is the earliest known burial in the cemetery, dated August 21, 1805. To date the cemetery has received about 560 burials.
Through the last few decades the congregation had slowly dwindled, eventually reaching a low of just two members. In 2012 the Community of Church of Whiting, as it was then known, was gifted to the Town of
Whiting. Whiting Village Church, two other
Maine properties named to
National Register of Historic Places
By Tim Cox, BDN Staff
Posted May 11, 2014, at 9:43 a.m.
WHITING, Maine — The Union Meeting House, also known as the Whiting Village Church, was one of three properties in Maine named to the National Register of Historic Places in April. The other two were the Foster-Redington House in Waterville and the Bond Street Historic District in Augusta.
Built in 1836, the Union Meeting House reflects elements of Federal and Greek Revival architecture. According to a history of the town, it was remodeled in 1866, and the interior was redecorated in 1904, when a belfry was added. The building was nominated — and chosen — to the register because of its architectural significance.
“The question is really: is it a good example of its type,” Christi Mitchell, an architectural historian with the state Historic Preservation Commission, said Tuesday. Many churches were built in rural Maine in the 1800s, she noted.
“One of the great things about it is it has a great deal of integrity,” Mitchell said. The exterior is virtually the same as the original structure except for the later addition of the belfry.
“We’re looking at a very authentic church,” she said.
“There was such a good possibility that it was a historic building,” Mary Alice Look, a member of the Whiting Board of Selectmen who compiled the information necessary for the application, said Tuesday. Look obtained information from the original deed, a history of the town and other sources, and Mitchell provided assistance.
The building originally was a federated church with two different congregations sharing it and alternating worship services, according to Look.
It previously was owned by the Community of Church of Whiting, which, with only two members left, could not afford to take care of it and donated it to the town two years ago.
The town voted to appropriate $20,000 in each of the last two years to preserve the building. Voters easily approved the spending, according to Selectman Steve Pressley.
Read more at the Bangor Daily News
Type of publication: Newspaper
When was the article reported?: 05/11/2014
Publication: Bangor Daily News
Article Url: [Web Link]
Is Registration Required?: no
How widespread was the article reported?: regional
News Category: Arts/Culture
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