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Sacred Spaces of New England

Places that elicit contemplation, reflection and inspiration.

  • Connecticut
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Federal Style

First Parish Church Congregational, Dover, New Hampshire

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Founded in 1633, First Parish Church is the oldest congregation in the state of New Hampshire. The church’s fifth home, is a Federal style brick structure, with steeple modeled after that of The First Religious Society of Newburyport, Massachusetts, was designed and built by Captain James Davis in 1829. The interior has undergone extensive changes since the building’s construction, the first in 1878 when the organ was moved to the front of the sanctuary, the box-style pews were removed, and the current arced slip pews were installed. In 1945, the side galleries were removed, a colonial-style chancel area built, and the pews and walls painted white. The exterior has undergone few changes since its construction. Donald Bryant, the author of The History of the First Parish Church, wrote that with all of the significant changes to the city of Dover since the church’s founding, “no buildings and no institutions [remain] except the First Parish Church. In the fabric of Dover’s history it continues as the single living thread that runs from the beginning to the present and will run unbroken into the future.”

Filed Under: New Hampshire Tagged With: Church, Congregational, Federal Style

First Unitarian Church, Worcester, Massachusetts

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Gathered in 1785, the First Unitarian Church of Worcester, Massachusetts was formed by a group of 54 “free thinkers” who left Worcester-based First Parish Church under the leadership of their pastor, Dr. Aaron Bancroft, in a quest to celebrate freedom of belief and religious expression that would help define Unitarian doctrine in the United States. The Church’s current Federal style structure, built in 1850, was designed by Sidney Mason Stone and was inspired by the Center Church on-the-Green in New Haven, Connecticut. Following in the footsteps of its founders, the First Unitarian Church continues, “to preserve the freedom of each of us to determine for ourselves what we believe and how we should live. We are open to the wisdom of world religions. We welcome and honor diversity of belief, culture, lifestyle, and political view as a source of strength.”

Filed Under: Massachusetts Tagged With: Church, Federal Style, Unitarian Universalist

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Recent Additions

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