Statement of Significance

Union Church

New Haven Mills, Vermont

The Union Church of New Haven Mills, Vermont, built in 1851, is significant as a well-preserved example of a wood frame Greek Revival style church. Outstanding features of the Union Church are the temple-front gable entrance, bold classical detailing of corner pilasters, full entablature and pediments, and stylistic emphasis on the paneled front door and the oversized windows. Local builder Eastman Case successfully employed in the construction of the Union Church Grecian architectural influences popularized by master builder Asher Benjamin. Another unique element of the Union Church design is a later addition of a Queen Anne style belfry, circa 1880. The Union Church also reflects the prosperity of mid 19th century New Haven Mills. The Union Church represents the growth of New Haven Mills village. It served as a community focus, surrounded by numerous mills and industries. A substantial number of buildings within the village have been destroyed over time due to fire and floods. As one of the few remaining structures of New Haven Mills the architectural merit and long standing civic association of the Union Church ensures eligibility under criteria consideration A. The church is being nominated under the multiple property submission, "Religious Buildings, Sites and Structures in Vermont" and clearly meets the registration requirements for the property type churches.

Historic Background and Significance

About 1780 New Haven grew around separate centers of industry and agricultural establishing a geographic division of settlement, and a division between its religious communities. The village of New Haven Mills organized a congregation on November 15, 1797, six months after the neighboring New Haven village. Religious meetings were held in the New Haven district schoolhouse with services for the two communities conducted on an alternating schedule. The congregational societies from the village of New Haven Mills and the adjacent New Haven village merged on September 29, 1800. New Haven Mills had excellent water power, so many grist and saw mills, a tannery, triphammer shop, and wagon shop developed here early on. By the 1840's a congregation exceeding 200 prompted the village of New Haven Mills to consider erecting a permanent building for their own religious services. Paralleling the growth of the community, the industrial and agricultural prosperity of New Haven Mills' economy encouraged the building of the Union Church.

On March 22, 1851, the Society of New Haven Mills commenced with monthly meetings to locate a meeting house, define conditions for subscriptions, and to select a plan for the building. Thirty-nine subscribers pledged $1,465 for the construction of the meeting house. The original articles of the Society required that subscribers demonstrate their religious affiliation. At the time of establishing the Union Church, different denominations were granted occupancy for the purpose of worship in proportion to the amount of their subscription. It is believed that the Union Church is one of the first ecumenical churches in Vermont for formally recognizing various denominations present within the community.

The Union Church is an excellent example of the Greek Revival style, popular in New Haven Mills and the state of Vermont during the mid 19th century. The 1851 charter of the Union Church directed the design to be, "a plan for a church 36 feet by 51 feet with 46 slips, a dome in place of a steeple, and interior walls of plaster Paris." The Society instructed a meeting house to be built of wood, following the plan of the Congregational Church of Shoreham, Vermont. The Shoreham Congregational Church is located in Addison County, several towns to the south of New Haven Mills. Built by James Lamb in 1846, the design of the Shoreham Congregational Church was inspired by designs in the pattern books of master builder Asher Benjamin, and served as a model for the classical detail elements and arrangement of the plan for the Union Church. The plan of the Union Church is recorded in the original charter and indeed does follow the plan of the Shoreham Congregational Church.

The Society of New Haven Mills commissioned local builder Eastman Case for the construction of the Union Church. Case's artistic sense of Greek Revival architecture is well demonstrated in surrounding homes that he built prior to the Union Church. A fine example of Case's work is the 1841 Amos Eddy house on VT Route 116 in Bristol Flats. The Eddy house is a simple rectangular massing with a monumental Doric portico. The grand scale of elements and Greek Revival styling is present in the Eddy design and also employed by Case in the design of the Union Church.

The design and details of the Union Church can be traced to Case's study of local buildings as well as style plates and examples found in architectural workbooks. The characteristics and philosophy of Greek Revival style architecture was conveyed to carpenters through handbooks popularized by master builders such as Asher Benjamin. The pew ends of the Union Church match the Shoreham Congregational Church and are patterned from a trim detail found in The Builder's Guide (1839, Plate LXI) by Asher Benjamin. Details for impost moldings over the interior windows and doors of the Union Church can be found in Benjamin's book, The Rudiments of Architecture (1814, Plate XXV). The full entablature and classic details of the Union Church were an essential design element used by local builders and leaders of Grecian influenced architecture. The temple-like, gable-front pediment, along with the oversized main entrance and windows captures the essence of Case's work and the architectural fashion of the period. The truss system that allows for spanning large spaces is detailed in Benjamin's The Country Builder's Assistant (1797, Plate XXIX, Figure C). Case's application of Benjamin's examples from pattern books uses styles and construction techniques in a composition of symmetry, balance and order that represents Greek Revival style architecture embodied by the Union Church.

In the early part of the 20th century fire and flood destroyed many of the commercial buildings in the village of New Haven Mills. In 1912 a fire destroyed two mills and the covered bridge spanning the New Haven River. The "Great Flood" of 1927 removed many of the remaining mills and businesses located along the New Haven River. With the loss of industry and the "Great Depression" a decline of the local economy reduced the village to a crossroads of substantially fewer structures remaining from the mid to late 19th century. In 1929 the local community incorporated as the Union Church of New Haven to preserve the building that now stood empty and unused after nearly a century of community service. In 1943 Middlebury College student Burt Rolfe worked for two summers with a group of students repairing the structure. Prior to World War II Rolfe also conducted occasional services promising "Someday I will fill this church," following his wartime duty. Rolfe was killed on a European battlefield a month later and the church was filled for his memorial service in honor of his dedication to the Union Church.

Current efforts to preserve the Union Church have been the focus of the community while maintaining occasional Sunday services and social functions. A preservation grant awarded by the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation for the repair of the foundation in 1990, combined with an archeological dig to assess the sensitivity of the surrounding area, has been one of the many ongoing efforts to preserve the structure. The Union Church serves as a reminder of a period of prosperity and the Greek Revival style architecture that flourished in New Haven Mills.