Northwood Congregational Church - Northwood, NH
Posted by: YoSam.
N 43° 13.051 W 071° 12.535
19T E 320588 N 4787338
least-altered Greek Revival churches in the state.
Waymark Code: WMZZ03
Location: New Hampshire, United States
Date Posted: 01/26/2019
Views: 2
County of church: Rockingham County
Location of church: 1st NH Turnpike (US-202), Northwood
Architect: Johnathan Tasker
Phone: (603) 942-7116
"The Northwood Congregational Church. Is a rectangular clapboarded wooden
structure i'h the Greek Revival style. The entire width of the front is treated as a tetrastyle Greek Doric portico, with wooden columns supporting a full entablature (which entends
along the two sides of the Building! and a pediment with a flush-boarded tympanum. Behind
each column, on the flush-boarded facade, Is an anta or pilaster of a simplified Doric
form, A similar pilaster terminates each rear corner of the building. The facade is
pierced by two two-panel doors which enter a vestibule. Between the doors Is a two-part
window that lights the vestibule, while above each door Is a small window that lights an
interior gallery which extends across the front of the auditorium. The entablature is a
simple Greek Revival type with a plain architrave and frieze separated by a fillet having
round dowel guttae spaced every few Inches along its bottom. The raking moulding of the
pediment is of the characteristic Greek. Revival "echinus" profile, and the same moulding
continues along the sides of the building as a crown moulding (now somewhat obscured by a
metal gutter).
"A three-part tower rises from the roof of the church over the portico. The tower has two
undecorated box-like stages, and a belfry stage In which paired Doric pilasters embrace
rectangular louvered openings. Above the pilasters of the belfry stage Is a full threepart entablature capped with a cornice of the profile used on ttie body of the church. This
tower contains a bell by the William Blafce Foundry of Boston, Massachusetts; the bell was
presented to the church as a memorial In 1872, but was not cast until 1888.
"The major elements of the frame church are of hewn white pine. The roof trusses are of
the king-post type, with principal rafters that support purl ins and common rafters.
Diagonal struts extend from shoulders at the bottom of each king post to the midpoint of
each principal rafter, and the roof frame is further reinforced by wind braces that extend
from rafters to purl ins and by a system of horizontal braces between the bottom chords of
the trusses." ~ NRHP Nomination Form