The book
The Third Century 1917-2017: First Parish Church, Brunswick, Maine, United Church of Christ, was published in hardcover by Just Write Books on October 15, 2016. Written by William K Millar Jr., it was edited by Mildred Jones and Elizabeth Newman.
Elizabeth Newman, Co-Chair of the 2017 Anniversary Committee asked Bill Millar to write the third century history of the First Parish Church. He said he would. Mildred Jones delivered a box of calendars, programs, transcribed interviews, a binder with many clipped articles and generally historical "stuff" along with Ashby's history of the church. After reviewing this box of information, Millar then raided the archives, file folder by file folder, for more. The book that you have in your hands is a product of a committee of three: William K. Millar Jr., the author with Liz Newman and Mildred Jones, the editors. With a century of information, dozens of photos and a complete index--this book is a necessary addition to any Brunswick history buff's collection. William K. Millar Jr. born and raised in Brunswick, Maine, began attending First Parish Church with his parents Bill and Edith Millar in 1951. During that time he rose from shepherd to wise man wearing the fez in the Christmas pageant. He holds degrees from the University of New Hampshire and California State University, Dominguez Hills. Retired as a lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserve and from the Maine Department of Education, he lives in Harpswell with his wife Susan. Millar's daughters, Heather and Laura, were members of the "multitude of the Heavenly Host" in the Christmas pageant as well. He is the author of Where Is Crusader Rabbit Now That We Really Need Him? a memoir of the Vietnam War.
From Amazon
You may notice the absence of a spire on this church's bell tower. Two years after completion, a new and more aesthetically pleasing spire was erected on the steeple. Eighteen years later, on October 30, 1866, a strong nor'easter blew the new spire from the steeple and it was never replaced.
NB - The national Register has exchanged the nomination form numbers for this and the First Parish Church in Portland. Each at the National Register page actually refers to the other.
First Parish Church
The present building was dedicated on March 18, 1846. The builders were Messrs Coolidge Graves and Isaiah Coombs. The chairman of the building committee was Professor William Smyth. The total cost of the building was $13,101.
Historically and architecturally, the First Parish Church of Brunswick ranks as the most important Gothic-Revival structure in the state if not in New England. The church was designed in 1845 by the English-born Richard UpJohn, whose Gothic Revival Gardiner Mansion of 1839 in Gardiner, Maine, had signalled the start of this country's second great eclectic style following the Greek Revival of the 1820s.
Upjohn, the first president of the American Institute of Architects, left Northeast an enormous architectural legacy of many hundreds of buildings, the best known survivor today being Trinity Church of lower Manhattan, built in 1845. Locally, the additional Upjohn churches of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Brunswick, the Central Congregational Church in Bath, and the Bowdoin College Chapel - all designed 1845-/46 - provide a nationally significant group of Upjohn architecture that continually enriches the Bath-Brunswick area.
There has always existed a close and friendly relation between the First Parish and Bowdoin College. The College gave finalcial assistance in the erection of both buildings on this site, and has certain rights in the use of the building. Until 1966 the Baccalaureate Services and the Commencement Exercises had been held either in this building or in the former one ever since the College was founded, and every Bowdoin graduate had received his degree in one or the other building except during World War II, when a few small commencements were held in the Bowdoin Chapel.
From the pulpit of this church on July 8, 1875, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow read "Montun Salutamus", the poem written for the fiftieth anniversary of his graduation from Bowdoin. Other noted personages who have spoken from the pulpit include President William Howard Taft, John Masefield, Poet Laureate of England, Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King.
Harriett Beecher Stowe's biographer, Adams, stated that she received a vision of the death scene of Uncle Tom while sitting in pew 23 during the communion of March 2, 1851.
In 1960 the First Parish Church voted to join the United Church of Christ. In 1968 extensive renovations were started on the church. The renovation projects were nearing the final states of completion at the time of this writing.
From the National Register