Major Bibliographical References (Cite the books, articles, and other sources used in preparing this form on one or more continuation sheets.) Previous documentation on file (NPS): Primary location of additional data: - preliminary determination of individual listing (36 X State Historic Preservation Office CFR 67) has been requested - Other State agency - previously listed in the National Register - Federal agency - previously determined eligible by the National - Local government Register - University - designated a National Historic Landmark X Other _ recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey # Name of repository: Millbury Federated Church Archives - recorded by Historic American Engineering Record # NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page1 OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts 8. Architect/Builder (continued) Frederick Gagnon (Proctor Parish House architect) William E. Guertin & Sons, Co. (Proctor Parish House builder) Summary Statement The First Presbyterian Society Meeting House, a 1½-story, wood-frame, Greek Revival church with Federal details in Millbury, Massachusetts, meets National Register Criterion A at the local level for its importance to the history of religion - and of community planning and development - - in Millbury. Its Armory Village neighborhood began in 1808 when the Waters family built a new armory at a bend in the Blackstone River; the subsequent building of First Presbyterian Society Meeting House nearby in 1828 (the beginning of the period of significance) helped the village displace the former town common as the civic center of Millbury.
The founding of the First Presbyterian Society is a fascinating example of the complex effects of the early industrial revolution on a town in Massachusetts in a time of religious revival, economic strife, and political realignment. The building meets National Register Criterion C at the local level for its importance to the town's architecture. First Presbyterian Society Meeting House is a previously unknown commission by the important architect Elias Carter. It is an important example of transition between the Federal and Greek Revival styles, as used for an ecclesiastical structure.
Owned by its congregation (now known as Millbury Federated Church), the First Presbyterian Society Meeting House is in generally good condition, only slightly altered since its period of significance (1828-1959), and has historic integrity in terms of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. The building also meets Criteria Consideration A for its use as a religious facility. The Setting: Millbury Millbury Center (Armory Village) is the largest village in the town of Millbury, just south of Worcester (which is the county seat and second-largest city in Massachusetts). Bordered directly by Worcester to the north, Auburn to the west, Oxford to the southwest, Sutton to the south, and Grafton to the east, Millbury covers 16.3 square miles.
The quintessential New England mill village in name and history, Millbury saw its first European settlers in 1716, when it was part of Sutton. Set apart by the General Court as the second precinct of Sutton in 1743, it incorporated as the independent town of Millbury in 1813. Topographically, Millbury is classified as part of Massachusetts' central upland (between the coast and the Connecticut Valley), with sandy and stony soils that drain primarily through the Blackstone River-and its tributaries the Singletary and Dorothy Brooks-southeastward to Narragansett Bay. The town slopes from 700 feet above sea level in the west to 400 feet in the Blackstone Valley, conditions that provided numerous locations for waterpower generation. By contrast, western Millbury's soil is loamier, better suited to farming, and drains westward to the French River through Ramshorn Brook.
Heavily forested, the town has several substantial wetlands: Dorothy, Ramshorn, and Singletary Ponds. Home to villages of the Nipmuck tribe, Millbury saw its first Europeans as farmers, tending grain, fruit, and livestock in the first decades of the 18th century. The early political center is now known as the Old Common. Other Millbury villages grew out of farms subdivided among the sons of large families (Grass Hill and West Millbury), while the largest villages grew up around waterpower sites on the Singletary, Ramshorn, and Blackstone. Small water-powered mills (saw, grist, fulling, and forge) gave rise to iron refining and a paper mill by 1770. John Singletary started a mill on Singletary Brook in 1735, and about 1753 built the S&D Spinning Mill, one of the oldest continuously operating mills in the country (and (continued) NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number_ 8 Page_ 2 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts pictured on the town seal). During the American Revolution, mills turned out guns and gunpowder for the Continental Army. The Waters family developed several of these later mills and became successful in building their armory on the Blackstone River, which secured many government contracts in the first half of the 19*h century. Opened in 1828 (four days after the dedication of the Meeting House), the Blackstone Canal brought direct water transportation between Worcester and Providence, an engineering feat that included nine locks and dams in Millbury alone.
When Millbury incorporated in 1813, its population numbered almost 500, but it expanded to 926 in 1820 and 1611 in 1830 as the town grew rapidly. Although the canal was quickly outmoded by the railroad for transportation in the 1840s, Millbury continued to produce a wide variety of mill products: guns, leather, metal products, paper, shoes, and textiles. Today the most important transportation links for Millbury are the east-west Massachusetts Turnpike (Interstate 90) which crosses the town's northeast corner, and the north-south Worcester-Providence Turnpike (State Highway 146), which bisects the town. The town is part of the John H. Chaffee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor. Millbury remains mostly rural, but has a heavily settled core and an industrial and commercial strip on its border with Worcester.
In the 2000 census, Millbury recorded 12,784 residents, or approximately 777 persons per square mile.' The Shoppes at Blackstone Valley, a commercial megaplex, opened just north of Millbury Centre in 2004. Criterion A: Religion and Community Planning & Development The First Presbyterian Society Meeting House is significant for its association with two interwoven elements of Millbury history - religion, and community planning & development - as they evolved in the 19th and early 20* centuries. The establishment of the Millbury Presbyterian Society and its construction of a meetinghouse symbolized a new religious, political, and social order that would shift the town center and transform Millbury.
The Establishment of Millbury and the First Congregational Church By 1765, on the eve of the American Revolution, Millbury and its parent town of Sutton had a population of 2,138, making it the third most densely settled town in Worcester County, and one of the county's three regional centers2 After several years of petitions, in 1743 the northern part of Sutton was set apart as its Second Parish, by a boundary line the court drew parallel to, and three miles south of, Sutton's northern border. A lot within the middle of this rough rectangle was set aside for a meetinghouse, which was erected in May of 1745. This site, known today as the Old Common, was soon bordered by the home of its minister, other houses, and small shops.
The Church of the North Parish of Sutton (which became Millbury) did not officially organize until 1747, the same year it successfully called its first minister, the Rev. Mr. Wellman. He served fourteen years before leaving in the midst of an unspecified controversy, the first of several periodic upheavals to shake the parish3 The second minister, the Rev. Chaplin, served 28 years before the congregation (continued) 'Claire W. Dempsey with Peter Stott, "Millbury: Revised Town Report," MHC Reconnaissance Survey Report, 1989; John C. Crane, "Chapter CXL: Millbury," History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Prominent Men, Comp. D. Hamilton Hurd (Philadelphia: J.W.
Lewis & Co., 1889), II: 1092-1128; Ellery Bicknell Crane, ed., History of Worcester County Massachusetts (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1924); "About the Town of Millbury," (http://www.millbury- ma.org/Public Documents/MillburyMA WebDocs/about), Town of Millbury; ", "Millbury, Massachusetts" Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) Massachusetts Community Profile(http://www.mass.gov/Ehed/docs/dhcd/profiles/186.doc); "A History of Millbury," Millbury Public Schools,(http://www.millbury.k12.ma.us/hs/history); "Millbury, Massachusetts," Wikipedia(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millbury, Massachusetts) " Claire W. Dempsey with Peter Stott, "Millbury: Revised Town Report." 3 The Rev. George A. Putnam, "The Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Congregational Church in Millbury, Massachusetts, 1747-1897: A Historical Sermon," pg.
11; pamphlet in the Millbury Federated Church Archives. NPS Form 110-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 3 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts dismissed him in 1792. Chaplin's young successor, the Rev. Joseph Goffe (1766-1846), began as a supply minister and was officially called to the pulpit in 1794, staying for 36 years. A decade into his tenure in 1804, the old meeting house was moved to a neighboring lot to become a public house (later razed), and a new larger meeting house built on the original lot. This second meeting house (also razed) was built by General Caleb Burbank of the parish; Burbank even produced, in his mill, the paper on which the Rev.
Goffe wrote the dedication sermon.* The church continued to grow gradually, or sometimes quickly, during years when revivals swept through: 1800, 1810, 1820, 1822, and 1827. The Rev. Goffe was memorialized by one of his successors as, "Endowed with a strong mind, great reasoning powers, an unwavering faith, a praise-worthy industry, and as he said of himself, with an "iron constitution and brazen lungs,' he wrought here not only to build up this Church, but to forward the growth and welfare of the whole town, in the affairs of which he had an almost controlling influence."S But Goffe could not control the flow of business, which split his church and gave rise to the Millbury Presbyterian Society in Armory Village in 1827.
Goffe was finally dismissed in 1830, as the remaining members of the First Congregational Church of Millbury began debating moving to a neighboring Millbury mill village, Bramanville, on nearby Singletary Creek. They finally abandoned their pastoral setting at Old Common, disassembling their church building in 1835 and rebuilding it in Bramanville in 1836. The remaining businesses along the Old Common soon left, and the neighborhood withered and dried up. "The people whose homes were still there had to make what they could out of passed [sic] glory. The canal and the railroad, and the water power, took business down into the valley, and the people followed the business." Of those villages down in the valley, Armory Village became the new business and civic center.
The Waters Family and The Founding of Armory Village The Waters family had long operated mills in the northern precinct of Sutton (which would become Millbury), before founding Armory Village in 1808. Descended from gunsmiths of London and Salem, Nathaniel Waters bought 3,000 acres in Northern Sutton in 1715, and his sons Nathaniel Jr. and Jonathan moved there several years later. Nathaniel Jr.'s oldest son Asa Waters (1742-1813) was born in Sutton and raised his own family there, intermarrying with other important Millbury families: the Burbanks, Goodells, Torreys, and Trasks? With his brother Andrus, Asa began a trip hammer mill on Singletary Brook, and became one of the main suppliers of guns and gunpowder to the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War.
Asa served as Deacon of the North Parish of Sutton in 1778, sitting in the appointed chair on the raised platform just beneath the pulpit.® Asa's sons Asa the Second (1769-1841) and Elijah bought the land on the Blackstone River in 1797 and built an armory there in 1808, winning their first government contract that same year ? Elijah died in 1814, but Asa Waters the Second continued producing muskets, bayonets, and pistols for the federal government until his death, when the business was known as Asa Waters and Son. Asa Waters the Second served as a state Representative (1823), and in Armory Village he founded the Millbury Bank (1825), built an elaborate mansion designed by Asher Benjamin (1826-1932), helped build the First Presbyterian Society Meeting House (1828), and donated the land to build the Millbury Academy (1832).
' His son Asa (Holman) Waters (1808-1887), a Phi Beta Kappa graduate (continued) * Ibid. "The Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary," 17-18. Putnam also records that Burbank first suggested the town name "Millbury." 5 Ibid. "The Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary," 19 6 Ibid. «The Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary," 23 Centennial History of the Town of Millbury Massachusetts Including Vital Statistics, 1850-1899 (Millbury: Town of Millbury, 1915), 8 The Rev. George A. Putnam, "The Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary," 15 9 Centennial History of the Town of Millbury, 465. 10 Ibid. 466-469. NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number_ 8 Page_4 OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts of Yale and a Harvard Law School-trained lawyer, took over the business during his father's final illness. After the end of federal munitions contracts in 1847, he retooled the mills for other products, although he resumed munitions production during the Civil War. Active as an abolitionist, he retired from business early and wrote local histories." Besides building up Armory Village, the Waters family might best be remembered for its many innovations in industrial design and production, and its generosity in sharing some of the patents with other government contractors.
The Founding of the First Presbyterian Society The founding of the First Presbyterian Society is a fascinating example of the complex effects of the industrial revolution on small towns in Massachusetts in a time of religious revival, economic strife, and political realignment. In 1827 forty members of the First Congregational Church in Millbury broke away and began worshipping in the schoolhouse in Armory Village, prior to building the First Presbyterian Society Meeting House in 1828. What caused the split in the congregation? The First Congregational Church history sees the change as quite benign: "The multiplying numbers called things about the other in their official documents, and continued to assemble together periodically.
An institutional history of the Presbyterian church agreed The year 1827 brings at once to our minds those days of religious controversy and even bitter strife which resulted in the separation between the unitarian and trinitarian wings of the Congregational churches. But this church was not of the number of those which thus parted company with their lifelong friends. The cause of our organization was, shall I say, more creditable. The increasing population seemed to demand a separate church in the east, or so called Armory village. The distinction of this church is that it was one of the first in New England formed chiefly because of the increase in manufacturing industries. Certainly the later movement of the First Congregational Church to Bramanville would seem to confirm this conjecture.
But the split in the congregation may be more complicated than these community institutional histories, written decades later, would admit. Millbury is one of the towns studied in detail by historian John L. Brooke in his important book The Heart of the Commonwealth: Society and Political Culture in Worcester County, Massachusetts, 1713-1861. According to Brooke, one Although the Workingmen attempted to organize in Millbury, the real power in political radicalism in Millbury were the Antimasons.
The Reverend Joseph Goffe, minister of the (First) Congregational Church on the Old Common in Millbury, was one of the leaders of a county-wide Antimason convention in Worcester in 1829.14 In September of 1929, Goffe wrote to his son that Millbury's local economy was in upheaval: "The numerous failures in the town last spring seem to have set everything afloat & confidence in the solvency of each other is much diminished among the people & such is the (continued) 11 [bid. 471-474 12 The Rev. George A. Putnam, "The Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary," 20 Millbury, Mass., 1902: 3; pamphlet in the Millbury Federated Church Archives. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989), 319-21. NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page_5 OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts continued hard pressure of the times that it is feared there will be more failures among us yet"! According to Brooke, "Antimasonswere often men who were on the edge of economic failure in the early 1830s, and often had every right to complain that they were losing ground to privileged interests in a highly competitive economy." Those losing out in this changing society might resent those advancing, such as the Waters family and Armory Village These kinds of social pressures often opened rifts in Millbury's society, including rifts between Rev. Goffe and his parishioners and relatives (Goffe's wife was a Waters and a close cousin of the Asa Waters family.).
Some Antimasons were small proprietors bypassed by the new industrial society, who saw Masonry as another of the new rising institutions threatening their livelihood, men like Goffe's neighbors, the failed storekeepers of the Old Common, or the less successful manufacturers on Singletary stream. Some of the rifts were political; because of the importance of their ties with the Federal government, the Waters family members "were strong Democrats," at a time when Jacksonian Democrats were highly antagonistic to other political parties." Some of the rifts were personal. Brooke notes that in 1829 the Rev. Goffe had complained to his children of the cost of Asa Waters the Second's house, which he termed, with some justification, a "palace."| In May of 1830 Goffe wrote to his son "that the Presbyterians in Armory Village were a society with "domineering purposes.
"'19 Some of the rifts combined all of these elements, and had begun appearing before Goffe's congregation split in 1827. For example, Brooke cites the board membership of the Millbury Bank, established primarily by Asa Waters the Second, who also became its first president. Six of the Millbury men who became Antimasons were stedasincorporatorsorclerkoftheilldury Banktits torminginooteyrr aaa, subsequently. In 1830 the Rev.
Goffe protested a rechartering of the Millbury Bank, seeking to withdraw his fund: because of the control exercised by his cousins in the Waters family over the bank Brooke specifically uses the case of Millbury and the formation of the First Presbyterian Society to define how former friends and neighbors took opposing sides in the Antimason movement: But if Millbury Antimasons were not involved in the town's dominant industries, they were not poor; they ranked higher than the Whig petitioners on the 1831 valuation, and the persistent Antimasons who signed the 1835 petition ranked higher than the Masons. Most importantly, they were distinguished in having a very high ratio of real to personal property, as recorded on the 1831 valuation; again, this was particularly the case among the 1835 petitioners.
In combination with a weak occupational profile, the evidence from the [Millbury] valuation strongly suggests that Antimasons were often older men who were heads of farm households. And Antimasons were distinguished from both Masons and Whig petitioners by their allegiance to the old Congregational church, as against the new Presbyterian society located in the Armory Village, a church established by the all-powerful Waters family. The Millbury Antimasons, thus, stood rooted in an older, increasingly outmoded economy and in the remnants of the corporate institutional order, whereas Masons and consistent Nationals were firmly in control of powerful new institutions and economic structures?1 (continued) 15 Joseph Goffe quoted in John L. Brooke, The Heart of the Commonwealth, 329-30. Goffe's letters to his children are collected in the Rev.
Joseph Goffe Papers at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester. 16 Ibid. The Heart of the Commonwealth, 332 1 Ibid. The Heart of the Commonwealth, 315 18 Joseph Goffe quoted in John L. Brooke, The Heart of the Commonwealth, 343. 19 Ibid. The Heart of the Commonwealth, 321. 20 Ibid. The Heart of the Commonwealth, 341n. 21 Ibid. The Heart of the Commonwealth, 340-41. NPS Form 110-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page_6 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts Most tellingly, argues Brooke, in 1831 Rev. Goffe "urged that Antimasons withdraw from church fellowship with Masons.
In making this crusade, he must have had in mind the Armory Village Presbyterian, which included Freemasons ny Vilage resy frem ch ucih feloehip wiee in its membership and whose pastor Goffe derided as a '[mason, or] cable-towed man of high & obstinate standing."22 But the Armory Village Presbyterians resisted Goffe's crusade. The First Presbyterian Society charter, dated February 10, 1827, was as shrewdly drawn as any business document, and made in consultation with a lawyer. Not until four months later, after this charter was finalized, did the forty members of the new society petition for dismissal, on June 30, 1827. This dismissal petition was granted on July 16. In a special meeting of the Presbytery of Newport - in Millbury on August 23, 1827 - the new group formed as the Presbyterian Society of Millbury.
The Centennial History characterizes the unusual nature of the charter: The founders exercised a scrupulous care to avoid possible dangers besetting them in the formation of the new enterprise and upon legal advice in the charter of the new society there was inserted a clause, the first of its kind, we are told, admitting to membership only those who received a majority affirmative vote of the members. This gave to the body a security in the management of its affairs not possessed by others in which the voting qualifications were lax. Since every one in those days was taxed for the support of the church in some one of the different communions, the methods pursued by the charter members of the new ecclesiastical society protected them against all who might seek a vote in its affairs, only to divert the work from the purpose of its founders..
The society thus chartered sought and secured the organization of a Presbyterian church, because they calculated By controlling the means to membership, the new society could maintain its autonomy and control its direction, as with any corporate board. By forming as a Presbyterian rather than Congregational society, it insulated itself from legal challenges by the existing Congregational Church, while continuing to enjoy the tax support of its prosperous members from the Barker, Forbes, Goddard, Goodell, Torrey, Trask, Waters, and Woodward families. Tax reports still in the Millbury Federated Church Archives detail clearly the many possessions owned by the members of the new parish, especially Asa and Asa H. Waters. Half a decade later, after Massachusetts disestablished the Congregational Church in 1833, the Armory Village group returned to its mother denomination.
On January 26, 1835, the Presbyterian society re- formed as Congregational, "in name and reality as it had all along been in spirit.»24 The Construction ofthe FirstPresbyterian Society Meeting House in Armory Village After meeting in a school building on School Street for its first year, the First Presbyterian Society dedicated its new building on October 2, 1828 - four days before the opening of the Blackstone Canal. In April of 1828, the Presbyterian Society had secured a prominent building site on the east side of the road leading from Armory Village to Worcester - two adjoining parcels of land formerly owned by Lydia Waters and Lydia Goodell? Both Lydia Waters, widow of Elijah (continued) 22 Ibid. The Heart of the Commonwealth, 343. 23 Centennial History of the Town of Millbury, 313-314.
24 Ibid., 315 25 Lydia Waters to First Presbyterian Society, 30 April 1828, (Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 263, Page 472), and Lydia Goodell to First Presbyterian Society, 30 April 1828, (Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 263, Page 473). A typed transcription of a "Copy of paper held by Miss Sophia Harrington" in the Millbury Federated Church Archives records that the First Presbyterian Society paid Lydia Goodell $112 for her lot. NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number_8 Page7 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts Waters (brother of Asa Waters the Second), and Lydia Goodell, widow of Orra Goodell, were founders of First Presbyterian Society.
The proprietors built the church and then turned it over to the Society. 2 While the building is often designates it as "The First Presbyterian Society's Meeting House in the Town of Millbury.*27 Because churches of the time were often built by separate committees or groups of proprietors, the official church records rovide minimal insight into the construction process. But in the case of the First Presbyterian Society Meeting House wo sets of contemporary documents provide more details. The first is a set of miscellaneous bills in the church archives including a handwritten page that itemizes the building expenses: Elias Carter bill for building Meeting House - Do for extra work on Meeting House - - --- Capt. Ihtis bill for raising Meeting house - .---- Do - Do for Expenses at dedication - - - - - - David B. Harrington Extra bill for work on Meeting house Samuel C.
Marsh Extra bill for painting on Meeting house George H. Holbrook bill for bell - - - - - John Park extra bill for carting bell - - - - -- Elias Forbes bill for Shares at raising --- Farnsworth & Mills Acct for paying Dimant for blinds and other Charges - -- ---- Farnsworth & Mills bill for Spirits for raising Meeting house - - - Joel Wilson for following poles - - - - 5000.00 214.24 37.50 15.96 41.50 31.10 372.05 7.00 4.25 132.25 paid 28.89 2.00 $5886.8228 This piece of paper is the only connection found so far linking Elias Carter to the design and construction of the First Presbyterian Society Meeting House, but his involvement seems clear. A handwritten bill for the bell, still preserved in the church archives, is signed by George Holbrook and confirms the subtotal indicated on this report.
Holbrook further promised to replace the bell free of charge if it should break within the first year, provided that the church deliver it to his foundry in Medway, Massachusetts. The second contemporary account of the building is by none other than the aggrieved Rev. Joseph Goffe of the First Congregational Church: (continued) 26 George P. Eastman, Address by the Rev. Geo. P. Eastman, 4-5. The Rev. Eastman further writes that he examined that Worcester newspapers and the Massachusetts Spy for that period but was unable to find a contemporary newspaper account of the formation of the society or the building of the church 21 "Pew No. 11, A. Andrews, Rec'd. and Recorded in the Societys Book of Records page 35 Feby 28 1829 Stephen Blanchard Town Clerk," Millbury Federated Church Archives.
The deed is actually a printed form letter with Asa Andrews name and the pew number written in pen in the appropriate blanks, then signed by the proprietors and justice of the peace. The date printed on the form letter is November 24, 1828, crossed out and written over. 28 Untitled list, Millbury Federated Church Archives. Some of the names are difficult to read and approximated here, although "Elias Carter" is clearly indicated. Several early bills and reports from the construction process have been saved by a later church historian and affixed to pieces of cardstock in the church archives. NPS Form 110-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 8 OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts On Monday this week, the Presbyterians at the East [village] raised their own meeting house. I was present a part of the time. It is a good looking frame 64 by 48 [ft.] with a tower and well underpinned with hewn stone two feet deep & when well finished will doubtless make a good appearance. It stands between the Widow Waters' & Master Grants. ... One thing respecting the raising was very commendable & I hope will have a happy influence on similar occasions. There was no spirituous liquor carried out to be drank [sic] at the frame while raising, consequently all was still at the raising,--no unnecessary clattering of tongues - it was finished the same day and no one was hurt.
[Afterwards] those who wanted spirits went to Farnsworth's Store where, by order of the building Committee, liquor was dealt out to them as often and as much as they pleased, and how large Farnsworth's bill, on this score, is I know not.?? From the First Presbyterian Society records (above), we can supply the total of Farnsworth's bill: $28.89 Later that same year, the Rev. Goffe attended and took part in the dedicatory service for the church of his former parishioners. He wrote a somewhat critical account of their new building: The Presbyterians have finished their meeting house, & on the first instant it was dedicated to the worship of God Mr. Searle of Grafton preached the sermon from Ps. 48:12.13. It was mostly in praise of Presbyterianism. The house is quite a handsome one green blinds to all the windows and the alleys are carpeted.
But the pulpit is placed between the two doors at the entrance in front of the singers but much lower, a most uncomfortable & awkward situation - the pulpit is made of rich mahogany & the slips are all raved [i.e., applied railings] with mahogany of a poorer quality. ... The steeple is a spire of 100 ft high and surmounted with a vane & furnished with a very good bell of 987 lbs. weight. It is on the whole a handsome house. They appear to be very well pleased at present, but they have not yet found a man tall enough to be their minister. Goffe may have felt satisfaction in that last comment, but Goffe's reference to the bell shows that the former parish, as well, was feeling a bit of jealousy towards the new meeting house. The members of First Parish thought that the new Presbyterian bell sounded better than theirs, and voted to sell their old bell and get a new one.
Goffe wrote that his church's new bell "will outring the Pres. bell if not shake it from its gudgeons. [However] I do not know but there is a little pride & ambition in this matter." 31 The first minister of the new First Presbyterian Society, George Washington Campbell, fell victim to the continuing Antimason sentiment in 1834, according to the town history. "He came at a time of anti-masonic feeling and, as he was a Jargest oi higeh stamdin to th eouteh,s thityihdr in aliera sucictony.l Broke of sorrey earat duese awhigh thens sras the continued to fester: "Millbury would be a strong center of Antimasonry through 1835."33 (continued) 29 The Rev. Joseph Goffe, letter dated 30 May 1828 (Handwritten transcription of passages from the letters, Millbury Federated Church Archives.
The original letters from Goffe to his children in the South are at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester.). 30 The Rev. Joseph Goffe, letter dated 7 October 1828. Underlined emphasis in original. 31 Ibid. letter dated 7 October 1828. 32 Centennial History of the Town of Millbury, 315. 33 John L. Brooke, The Heart of the Commonwealth, 330. NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number_8 Page 9 OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts From First Presbyterian Society Meeting House to Second Congregational Church On January 20, 1835, the First Presbyterian Society became the Second Congregational Society3* The new church at first had no organ, but it valued its music program, run for many years by Nathaniel Goddard. Musicians in Millbury were a transient class; although the church boasted a clarinet, violin, and violincello at one time, it was "reduced in musical instruments to one flute, played by Col. Asa H. Waters, during the winter of 1843-44.
[In response] Charles Sibley purchased an organ which had been taken from the Union Church in Worcester, secretly transported to Millbury on Friday night and installed during Saturday, so that it stood with a bold front facing a surprised congregation on Sunday morning There was opposition to the innovation, but it remained in its place to the enrichment of the service of worship."35 After a revival in 1851 added 73 members to the church, the church raised $1,200 and built its first conference room, in the basement under the church. Prior to that time Sunday school classes and prayer meetings had been held in that same school building on School Street where the congregation first worshipped Since 1828 when the first bell (manufactured by George Holbrook) was installed in the church steeple, it has been replaced at least three times: in 1839, 1845, and the 1890s. According to the Rev.
Eastman, writing in 1902, the second bell was sabotaged by a church member: "For the sake of the future historian I should allude to a story recently come to light, of the destruction and replacing of one of our bells. The story is told sixty years after it happened by the chief participant himself. We need not indorse the ethics of the deed. As soon as the bell in question was in place it became evident that its harsh tone was universally distasteful to the delicate ears of musical Millbury. Two audacious young men took it upon themselves to remedy the matter. They removed the tongue for a short time, when the bell was not in use, and had ten pounds of iron welded on. The desired result, a cracked bell within a few weeks, can readily be anticipated.
The innocent manufacturers willingly replaced the bell at their own expense" 36 Although he does not specify which bell he is speaking about, he must have meant the 1839 bell, as the second and third bellswere both manufactured by Henry N. Hooper. The most significant renovation of the church occurred in 1862, when the church members finally addressed the issue of the pulpit, which had disturbed the Rev. Goffe in 1828. The Rev. George Eastmanapparently relying on the memories of his older parishioners forty years later - described the church as it looked in 1862: At that time the gallery extended around the four sides of the room, the pews faced toward the church front, and the high pulpit, reaching well up to the gallery, stood between the entrance doors. It is said that more than once hymn books slipped from the choir rail and fell perilously near the preacher's head.
Was it always accidental? I have heard a vague rumor that the bald head of one preacher was the target for something smaller than a hymn book tossed from the hand of a mischievous youth. Several members had long advocated for a change: "For twenty five years many had urged that the pews be reversed so as to face in the usual direction. Indeed when the building was erected, there had been opposition to the plan adopted. 'A most uncomfortable and awkward situation' was one comment at the time. But for many years the required consent of the (continued) 34 150th Anniversary Celebration of the Second Congregational Church (1834) and the Millbury United Methodist Church (1835), 1986. Millbury Federated Church Archives. 35 Centennial History of the Town of Millbury, 316 36 George P. Eastman, Address by the Rev. Geo. P. Eastman, 20 37 Ibid. Address by the Rev. Geo. P. Eastman, 16.
NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number_8 Page_10 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts pew owners could not be attained. ...At this time the east gallery was removed, a recess a few feet deep was built in the rear of the church, and the platform placed where it is now."3 Whether all of the twenty-foot rear extension was built at this time is unknown. Not all of the members of the congregation supported the change, so Asa H. Waters chaired a committee charged with justifying the changes in the worship space.
In a letter that remains in the church archives, he argued that change was necessary and natural: From an examination of our Records it appears that this Church was dedicated to Almighty God in the year 1828 From that time to the present it has been in regular and constant Service without a partial alteration or even necessary repairs - a period of thirty four years during which a whole generation has passed off the stage and of all the persons recited in the Act of Incorporation only two remain. It is said by the inspired penman that "the fashions of this world passeth away" & to this inevitable fate of all things earthly, Churches certainly form no exception.
The form and fashion of a Church which is entirely satisfactory to one generation is wholly unsatisfactory to the next and if we w[oulld encourage the rising generation in the habit of attending Church some regard must be paid to their tastes and feelings so as to make it an inviting-rather than a constrained duty. Apart from arguing that change and evolution was necessary to keep a new generation involved in the church, Waters detailed the specific problems with the west-facing pews: The first general complaint against the House is that the Pews are arranged facing the entrances so that persons entering are compelled to face the whole congregation, which to strangers & Ladies especially is very embarrassing besides producing disturbance, if services have commenced.
This fashion with nothing to even to recommend it has in the opinion of ye Committee passed wholly away, long since - never to return. Indeed so far as they can learn all the Churches built upon that plan contemporaneous with this Church have long since been remodeled & the seats reversed. Your Committee therefore unanimously conclude that this is a well grounded complaint which ought to be removed.
40 To further drive his point home, Waters argued a more general need for renovation, touching upon the very souls of his fellow churchmen: The next complaint made & considered is that the Church from long use and general neglect has become uncleanuntidy - uncomfortable - and altogether unfit for the pure worship of God - If to worship Him in the beauty of holiness requires clean hands & a pure heart, how is it possible to render Him acceptable service in a Sanctuary defiled with dirt & filled with oppressive odors! 41 (continued) 38 Ibid. Address by the Rev. Geo. P. Eastman, 17-18 39 A.H. Waters, "Report," Millbury March 3rd 1862, handwritten note in the Millbury Federated Church Archives 40 Ibid., "Report." "' Ibid, "Report." NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number_8 Page 11 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts Before construction could begin, the church had to purchase the individual pews back from their holders. With the reorientation, the church switched to "renting the slips" instead of pew sales. On April 6, the last meeting before construction, pew holders were "requested to remove all their Pew furniture such as Carpets, Cushions, Hymn-books &/c as the committee will decline all responsibility for the same." 42 The changes were made, and the newly "cleansed" church rededicated on October 19, 1862.
The following decades brought successive waves of lesser renovations: in 1877 (repairs and the front curbing), a second "thorough renovation" in 1884, and "extensive repairs" in 189343 In the 1884 campaign, the 1844 organ was removed and replaced with an organ by George S. Hutchings of Boston. It remains the church's organ, although the console was replaced in 1951.44 The 1884 "renovation and enlargement of the church" also included the "provision.. for a ladies parlor and kitchen." 45 The Second Congregational Society re-incorporated as the Second Congregational Church in 1891. During the Rev.
George Eastman's tenure (1891-1903), the church saw the "establishment of free pews and the pledge system of raising money, the installing of a new bell, the fourth in the history of the church, the purchasing of the beautiful memorial windows, which now constitute much of the adornment of our auditorium, and the recent building of the addition for the use of the ladies in providing for the material welfare of our social gatherings."46 One interesting chapter in the history of the Second Congregational Church is its connection with William Howard Taft (1857-1930), 27" President of the United States (1909-1913). Taft also served as the U.S. Solicitor General, Secretary of War, Provisional Governor of Cuba and of the Philippines, and after his single term as president, as 10" Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Although born in - and usually associated with-Ohio, Taft had a lineage that led back to New England, and specifically to Millbury, for his mother Louisa Torrey. His maternal grandparents were Samuel Davenport Torrey and Susan Holman Waters (the oldest child of Asa Waters the Second), active members of the Second Congregational Church. Taft spent a significant part of his boyhood with the Torrey family in Millbury, even attending school there for a period. After her husband's death in 1891, Louisa Torrey Taft returned from Ohio to Millbury, where she lived with her older sister Miss Delia C. Torrey. 47 William Taft visited his mother in Millbury on a regular basis until her death there in 1907, and he returned twice while he was President to visit his aunt, attending church with her at the Second Congregational Church (as this building was then known).
A picture of his April 3, 1910, visit, showing President Taft escorting his aunt down the front church steps, hangs in the vestibule of the Millbury Federated Church. As part of this 1910 visit to Millbury, President Taft attended a meeting of the Olive Branch Masonic Lodge and was made an honorary Mason.4 Fittingly, given the symbolic meaning of the olive branch, peace had descended upon the grandchildren of both the Masons and the Antimasons in Millbury. (continued) 42 Records of Presbyterian Church and Second Congregational Church from 1827 to 1862, ledger in the Millbury Federated Church 43 Centennial History of the Town of Millbury, 317-18 44 Centennial History of the Town of Millbury, 317. This organ was last refurbished ca. 2003. 45 George P. Eastman, Address by the Rev. Geo. P.
Eastman, 19; 150" Anniversary Celebration of the Second Congregational Church (1834) and the Millbury United Methodist Church (1835), 1986. Millbury Federated Church Archives. 46 George P. Eastman, Address by the Rev. Geo. P. Eastman, 19-20. 47 Centennial History of the Town of Millbury, 398 48 "Passing of William Howard Taft: Millbury Mourns with Nation - Former President's Early Life Here Recalled Guest of Town at Centennial Celebration," undated, unsourced clipping in the Millbury Federated Church Archives. NPS Form1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page12 OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts From the Second Congregational Church to the Millbury Federated Church In 1918 the Second Congregational Church and the Millbury Methodist Episcopal Church, both suffering from declining numbers, began talks to federate. One minister had left and the other was ready to retire. Committees representing each church met in February 1919, and after a discussion, voted unanimously to proceed. On March 5, the congregations hosted a joint meeting with the Rev. Howard F. Legg, "an authority on Federation, having organized Federated Churches in Wilbraham, Holliston, Sandwich, Hyannis, and Ashland."4) Voting separately on March 12, each congregation approved the federation.
The Articles of Federation, still followed by the church today, gave each congregation autonomy within the federation, each maintaining its own membership rolls and electing three members to the six-member Board of Management. The federation kept its two best buildings - the Congregational Church and the Methodist parsonage (1901) - and eventually sold the others. The Second Congregational Church had built its parsonage in 1866; it was not contiguous to this site and is not part of this nomination. The churches officially federated on April 1, 1919, and held their first joint service on April 6, 1919. The Millbury Methodists had held their first class in about 1822 and incorporated as church in 1835, meeting in a school, and later the lower hall of a tavern, in the Goodell Village section of Millbury.
They built a church on Elm Street in the summer of 1840, and dedicated it on November 17 of that year. The small congregation sustained it with pew rent or pew sales until 1888, when they switched to freewill offerings. After seeing 43 pastors come and gono pastor serving more than three years due to the rotation policies of the Methodist conference - they began worshiping with their neighbors at the Second Congregational Church. Eventually, they sold the old church building. According to the combined church history, their former church building was partially dismantled and reused as a movie theater. Working together, the new combined congregation refurbished the First Presbyterian Society Meeting House in 1923, adding a new furnace and repairing the slate roof. In addition, they installed a new hardwood floor and lighting in the sanctuary.
In 1929, they extended the front platform forward by three feet." In 1930, they painted the church and attempted to "strengthen the timbers to the tower to prevent further settling."2 The Millbury Federated Church celebrated the centennials of each of the congregations, in 1927 and 1935. As part of the latter celebration, they installed part of the 1840 communion rail from the old Methodist Church in their new sanctuary. S In 1947, the church hired the architectural firm of Lamotte & Son to redesign the vestry space under the church, replacing the boiler and adding a kitchen.S4 In the years after the Second World War, the Millbury Federated Church, like many other churches, experienced crowding due to the influx of young families. Accordingly, they added facilities for Sunday School and other church purposes.
Luckily for the congregation, when member Harold Buck Proctor died he left his home and a monetary legacy, which the (continued) 49 Gertrude Chase, "History of the Millbury Federated Church," 1969 5° 150"h Anniversary Celebration of the Second Congregational Church (1834) and the Millbury United Methodist Church (1835), 1986. The Methodist section appears to be largely recopied from another typescript compilation, "One Hundredth Anniversary of the Methodist Church in Millbury" Millbury Federated Church Archives 51 «Will Enlarge Platform," ca. 1929 clipping presumably from the Millbury Journal, Millbury Federated Church Archives. 52 "The Painting Fund," The Bulletin, Millbury Federated Church 10 May 1930 53 Gertrude Chase, "History of the Millbury Federated Church," 1969.
See also "Federated Church to Make Extensive Repairs," Millbury Journal, undated article pasted in the Millbury Federated Church ledger, pg. 31. 54 plans for this renovation are in the Department of Public Service files at the Massachusetts State Archives. No other information on this firm is available in MACRIS or any of the other standard sources. NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number_ 8 Page_13 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts Second Congregational Church received in 1951. This bequest allowed the parish several growth options. The church made the Proctor house the new parsonage, selling the former Methodist Church parsonage in 1963.
In 1955, the church purchased the Howard house, a two-story frame house (ca. 1920) directly east of the church, to use for Sunday School classrooms. Since the Period of Significance Planning for further expansion began in 1958, and in 1961 the church used $50,000 of the Proctor legacy to begin a building fund, hiring local architect Frederick Gagnon. S Constrained by public rights-of-way on both sides, they determined to sell and move the Howard house, which stood to the east, and build a parish house extension on that lot. In 1958, the church bought the nearby Harrington house on Elm Street (razed), the grounds of which provide parking for the church. The building committee hired builder William E. Guertin & Sons, and broke ground for the new parish house on September 25, 1963. They dedicated the completed building two years later, on September 26, 1965.
As built, the Parish House included "a church office, a pastor's study and counseling center, twelve classrooms, a large hall, four rest rooms, five storage closets, and a new boiler room. »56 The $130,000 spent for the Proctor Parish House included several changes to the church -- the addition of the two eastern gallery exits and renovations to the basement vestry and kitchen. In 1977, after vandalism to the stained glass, the church installed Lexan covers over the windows. In 2006, the congregation hired a contractor to repair and paint the steeple. The engineering firm that the contractor consulted told him the steeple could not be stabilized, and recommended closing the church immediately and removing the steeple.
The contractor removed and stored the bell and bell tower, and capped the yoke with a temporary steeple Today the Millbury Federated Church remains an active church, with two Sunday services, a nursery school, food pantry, and a wide range of community service and outreach programs. Criterion C: Architecture The FirstPresbyterian Society Meeting House is significant for its architecture, both as the design of an important architect, Elias Carter, and as an excellent example of the transition between Federal and Greek Revival architecture in an ecclesiastical building. Despite the loss of its steeple, it retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance under Criterion C.
Elias Carter, Architect and Builder Long recognized as a significant architect, Elias Carter has not previously been credited as the architect of the First Presbyterian Society Meeting House, or, for that matter, any other building in Millbury. The knowledge that the design is Carter's comes from a single referencethe building committee report found in the Millbury Federated Church Archive ind transcribed above. However, the date and place fit quite well with what we know of the rest of Carter's career. Th First Presbyterian Society Meeting House represents a church design from the most creative and successful point in Carter's career. (continued) $5 Gertrude Chase, "History of the Millbury Federated Church," 1969.
56 "History of the Proctor Memorial Parish House," Dedication of Proctor Memorial Parish House, the Millbury Federated Church, Millbury, Massachusetts, September 26, 1965, Millbury Federated Church Archives. NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 14 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts Elias Carter was the architect and builder of the meetinghouse, for which the First Presbyterian Society paid him an initial $5,000 and $214.24 more for extras. The earliest, and still most complete, biographical article on Carter is by Harriette Merrifield Forbes.
Forbes judged Carter's influence on the neighboring city of Worcester as transformative: Previous to 1828 there were few handsome houses in Worcester, Massachusetts.... About 1828, a man came to town who immediately supplanted most of the earlier designers of buildings. In ten years or less he had changed the aspect of the town and erected more beautiful houses than it had had in all its previous existence. According to Forbes, Carter first appeared in the Worcester tax rolls in 1829, living in a house on Nobility Hill and maintaining a shop on Thomas Street with a younger builder, Zenas Studley. Later Carter partnered with another successful builder, Marchant Tobey, working in Worcester for a decade before leaving Worcester for Chicopee Falls.
Was it the work on the meetinghouse in Millbury that brought Carter to back to south-central Massachusetts, to nearby Worcester, where he launched the most successful chapter in his career? Elias Carter (1781-1864) was born in nearby Ward (now Auburn), Massachusetts to Timothy and Sarah (Walker) Carter S9 Timothy and his brother Benjamin were building contractors known as Carter and Carter, working throughout central Massachusetts. When Elias was three, Timothy fell to his death while building the meetinghouse in Leicester. Benjamin Carter moved to Vermont and Sarah Carter took her six children to Greenwich, Massachusetts, eventually marrying a farmer in Hardwick. Without citing her sources, Forbes maintains, "The boy Elias had the inheritance and probably the plans of his father.
He certainly had the book which had been his fathers guide, Battey Langley's "Treasury of Designs."60 After spending time working somewhere in the South, Carter returned to central Massachusetts. Forbes speculates, undoubtedly commenced his career as a master builder, later leaving the easier work to others and becoming himself the architect and wood-carver of the firm."6l The earliest recorded work by Elias Carter is the 1805 meetinghouse (razed) in Brimfield, Massachusetts. The town history gives a humorous account of the raising of the frame: The raising of the ponderous frames was successfully accomplished. One whole side was raised at a time, the west side first; Mr. Carter going up with it, standing on the gallery girth. Only one man, Ezra Hitchcock, fell, or was injured in any way.
He petitioned the town for relief or compensation, but the common opinion seems to have been that if he had not been elevated, more than sober people usually are, he would not have fallen. Aaly ane, ne wautd no iave palte sems ave According to Forbes, besides the meetinghouse, Carter designed a hotel, at least four houses, and a four-story factory (razed) in Brimfield. Carter was also an investor in the latter venture; when it went bankrupt he moved south into Connecticut. There Carter built churches in Thompson (1816, from plans by Ithiel Town) and Killingly (1818), before returning to Massachusetts and building churches in Mendon and Milford (1820). Elias Carter's wife later told a granddaughter that they had lived in at least forty different places while Carter pursued building. (continued) 57 Untitled list, Millbury Federated Church Archives.
Some of the names are difficult to read and approximated here, although "Elias Carter" is clearly indicated 58 Harriette M. Forbes, "Elias Carter, Architect, of Worcester, Mass.," Old-Time New England 11.2 (Oct 1920): 58-71, pg. 58. 59 "The Carter Family," Historical Celebration of the Town of Brimfield, Hampden County, Mass. (Springfield: Clark W. Bryan Company, 1879), 388-389. Full text available online at Google Books 60 Harriette M. Forbes, "Elias Carter," 59. 61 Ibid. "Elias Carter " 59 62 Historical Celebration of the Town of Brimfield, Hampden County, Mass. (Springfield: Clark W. Bryan Company, 1879), 122. Full text available online at Google Books. NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number_8 Page15 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts According to the records of the Unitarian Church in Mendon (1820), that church was the eleventh or twelfth built by Carter, the best known (and earliest surviving) being the church in Templeton, Massachusetts (1811). Carter's work in Worcester included several churches, a store for Daniel Waldo, the Insane Hospital (1832), and at least eight grand houses. Other later commissions in Massachusetts include houses in Taunton and Monson and the Leicester Academy (1832), which Elias Carter built next door to the church where his father had perished.
According to the MACRIS state listing of extant resources that have been surveyed, Carter churches remain in Granby, Mendon, North Brookfield, and Templeton, as well as the Hitchcock Academy (1855) in Brimfield and Ward E at the Westborough State Hospital (1847) Carter houses, meanwhile, survive in Barre (4), Brimfield (5), Leominster, Monson, Princeton, Sturbridge, and Worcester (4). 3 Forbes notes that the Clough R. Miles house (1835) in Millbury bore resemblance to other Carter houses. Some of the other Millbury houses of this era should be investigated for a Carter connection. In northern New England, Elias Carter's design for his Templeton, MA, church of 1811 proved to be influential. Seven New Hampshire churches copied the design between 1812 and 1823 64 Elias Carter also designed an insane asylum for Concord, NH (1842).'S The influential architectural historian Talbot F.
Hamlin wrote a biographical entry on Carter for the Dictionary of American Biography. While relying heavily on Forbes, Hamlin clarifies the significance of Carter's work. Carter's time in the South is "apparent in the high porticos he loved," Hamlin notes, but more importantly, His importance as an architect is due to the fact that he was brought up and did his earliest work under strong "late Colonial" influences, which colored his later Greek Revival work, and gave it a restraint and a harmony with its American use all too lacking in other work of the time. He was somewhat influenced by Asher Benjamin, but his work is usually more restrained, as he restricts himself, with few exceptions, to the lonic and Doric orders.
His churches were the typical white steepled churches of New England."66 While Hamlin judges Carter's Worcester houses as his most innovative and successful works, Carter's churches seem to architecture as emblematic of early 19th archisetuse as eminematic of earty T9l ceon ay Americanhurch buidings are cited in numerous books on church (continued) 63 MACRIS (Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System), Massachusetts Historical Commission, http://mhc- 61 Peter Benes, "The Templeton "Run' and the Pomfret "Cluster': Patterns of Diffusion in Rural New England Meetinghouse Architecture, 1647-1822" Old-Time New England 68: 3-4 (Winter-Spring 1978): 1-21. For more on the possible attribution of some of these churches to Carter, see Bryant F. Tolles, Jr., with Carolyn K.
Tolles, New Hampshire Architecture: An Illustrated Guide (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1979 5 "New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane." Farmer's Cabinet (Amherst NH) 17 Nov. 1843. 66 Talbot F. Hamlin, "Carter, Elias," Dictionary of American Biography, 1946: III: 533. Other brief biographical notes include "Carter, Elias," Henry F. Withey and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased) (Los Angeles: New Age, 1970); and "Carter, Elias," Who Was Who in America 1607-1896. 67 The following books all feature multiple references to Carter and his churches: Marilyn J. Chiat, America's Religious Architecture: Sacred Places for Every Community (New York: John Wiley, 1997); Roger Kennedy, American Churches (New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1982); Peter T.
Mallary, New England Churches & Meetinghouses, 1680-1830 (Seacaucus, NJ: Chartwell, 1985); George Francis Marlowe, Churches of OldNew England: Their Architectureandtheir Architects, their Pastors and their People (New York: Macmillan, 1947); G.E. Kidder Smith, The Beacon Guide to New England Houses of Worship: An Architectural Companion (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989). NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 16 OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts TheFirst PresbyterianSociety MeetingHouse andtheTransition to Greek Revival Architecture Besides its architect Elias Carter, the First Presbyterian Society Meeting House is also significant as an excellent example of the transition from Federal to Greek Revival styles of architecture in an ecclesiastical building. The Greek Revival characteristics of the building are most prominent on the symmetrical temple-front western facade: its triangular pediment supported by four Tuscan columns in a full-width open portico. Some of the decorative elements, however, are clearly Federal, including the attenuated nature of the Tuscan columns and the bold fanlights over the doors and each of the windows on the three principal elevations.
Perhaps no other building by Elias Carter more clearly illustrates Talbot Hamlin's characterization of Carter's later work as Greek Revival colored by "strong "late Colonial' influences." Meetinghouses evolved significantly over the two centuries after they were first erected in Massachusetts, and the switch from Federal to Greek Revival was much more gradual and incremental than it might seem in retrospect. No longer were meeting houses the house-like foursquare buildings of the 17" century, or the 18" century's rectangular buildings with door and pulpit on the long sides. " 'Beginning early in the 18" century, the post-fire London churches of Christopher Wren began to influence the Anglican churches built in coastal New England cities, such as Christ Church (Old North; 1723) in Boston, with its gable roof, tower, and spire.
As the 18'h century progressed, prominent Puritan meetinghouses such as Old South (1729) in Boston adopted the tower and spire, if not yet the tower main entry. After 1750, James Gibbs' design of St. Martin in the Fields in London further influenced many of the larger city churches.® After the Revolution, the Federal-style church - developed by Charles Bulfinch and popularized by Asher Benjamin in his subsequent designs and pattern bookssolidified this idea of a prominent end entry, through a porch or portico, with a belfry tower and spire atop. The pulpit gradually moved to the narrow end (although usually the end opposite the door!), even in more conservative rural areas. As the 19* century progressed, these places of worship adopted the Greek Revival style.
According to Peter Williams, The Greek Revival [was] a much simpler mode than its Federal predecessor, [and] featured a portico of imposing and largely unornamented Doric columns with a similarly plain pediment above. Its inspiration was nothing from Christian history but rather derived from the 'pagan' temples of Hellenic antiquity, of which it was a modern-day appropriation. Many, if not most, of these meetinghouses were capped with a steeple, which rests on the body of the church itself rather than extending partly over the portico in the Federal mode.
Williams here points out another way in which the Millbury meetinghouse was more Federal than Greek Revival: its steeple still extends partly over the portico (continued) The Greek Revival in America may be said to have begun in 1818 in Philadelphia, with both the construction of the Second Bank of the United States (designed by William Strickland) and the publication of John Haviland's The Builder's 68 Philip D. Zimmerman, "Congregational Churches," The Encyclopedia of New England: The Culture and History of an American Region, ed. Burt Feintuch and David H. Watters (New Haven: Yale UP, 2005), 98-99. 69 For a sustained discussion of the evolution of the meeting house form in New England, see William H. Pierson, Jr., American Buildings and their Architects: Volume 1, the Colonial and Neoclassical Styles (New York: Oxford UP, 1970) and Peter W.
Williams, Houses of God: Region, Religion, and Architecture in the United States (Urbana: U of IL Press, 1997). 70 Peter W. Williams, Houses of God: Region, Religion, and Architecture in the United States (Urbana: U of IL Press, 1997), 12 NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number_8 Page_17 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts "the first American book to give the Greek orders."?! The first Greek Revival church in New England was St. Paul's Episcopal Church (1819-20) in Boston, designed by Alexander Parris. The Greek Revival was "an architectural revolution against which the rock of Boston conservatism would avail nothing....
Like the germ of influenza, it swept on across the [Atlantic] ocean, through the East and South, and into the rawest settlements, even beyond the Mississippi."72 Greek Revival architecture was popular across the United States from 1820 to 1860, and represented a gradual departure from British influence for American architects? In the second quarter of the 19*h century, Americans embraced the Greek Revival as a national style: not only architects but also builders, patrons, and consumers of architecture.
Architectural historian William Pierson summarized its importance: The Greek Revival was the first pervasive and self-conscious nationalistic movement in American architecture Although its initial impetus came at the professional level, where it was used for government buildings all over the land, the total national character came at the folk level, where it achieved the same fulfillment of aspiration toward architectural independence as Jefferson's idealistic adaptation of Roman architecture did more than a quarter of a century earlier. Although no documented link exists, Carter is sometimes thought to have apprenticed with Asher Benjamin, as other architect/builders of his day did. Certainly he could learn the principles of Greek Revival through his travels and through the architectural guidebooks published by Benjamin and John Haviland.
The heart of Millbury is distinctive in having, in close proximity, the Asa Waters House and the First Presbyterian Society Meeting House, distinguished works by Asher Benjamin and Elias Carter, two of the finest architects then working in New England Archaeological Significance Since patterns of ancient Native American settlement in Millbury are poorly understood, any surviving sites could be significant. Ancient sites in this area may contribute important information related to the location, function, and variability of site types within the Blackstone River drainage, particularly in the transitional zone between the coastal lowlands and Worcester Plateau uplands. Potential sites on the Meeting House property may contain valuable information related to the importance of sites located along the main drainage of the Blackstone River watershed.
Native American settlement in this area may focus on larger sites along the Blackstone River, possibly at the confluence of tributary streams/rivers, or at fall lines. Ancient sites in the vicinity of the church may be related to larger sites and/or core areas along lower portions of the Blackstone River towards Narragansett Bay to the south or towards the lower reaches of the Charles and Neponset Rivers to the northeast. Ancient sites in this area may contain information that indicates the local and regional socio/political impact of Native social groups in these drainages and how these relationships changed through time. This data could test commonly held beliefs pertaining to riverine drainage settlement hypotheses. (continued) 74 William H. Pierson, Jr., American Buildings and their Architects: Volume 1, 432. NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number_8 Page 18 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts Historic archaeological resources described above may contribute important information related to the evolution of Millbury Center (Armory Village) as the religious and community center for the town of Millbury during the 19* and early 20" centuries. Additional historical research, combined with archaeological survey and testing, may contribute important information related to the evolution of the North Parish of Sutton and its later incorporation as the Town of Millbury.
Structural evidence of renovations and changes to the meetinghouse building, barns, stables, and outbuildings may contribute additional evidence of the architectural evolution of the meetinghouse structure and the facilities that evolved with the church. Archaeological evidence of occupational-related features (trash pits, privies, wells) may also contribute evidence of the structure's evolution, and the social, cultural, and economic characteristics of the church parishioners and greater Millbury community. Structural evidence of the Howard House, associated barns, outbuildings, and evidence of occupational-related features may contribute important information related to earlier land use on the church property and 19t*/early 20t* century life in Millbury. Additional historical research and archaeological testing may determine whether the Howard House was built on Lot 128 in ca.
1920, or constructed earlier at another location and moved to its current address. Structural evidence from the house may contribute information related to the architectural characteristics of19*/early 20* century apartment houses in Millbury. Detailed analysis of occupational-related features may contribute social, cultural, and economic information related to the occupants of the house. (end) NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 9 Page1 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts 9. Selected Bibliography "About the Town of Millbury" http://www.millbury-ma.org/Public_Documents/MillburyMA_WebDocs/about. Town of Millbury "Annual Leaflet. Second Congregational Church, Millbury, Mass." March 1894.
Benedict, William Allison, comp. History of the Town of Sutton, Massachusetts, from 1704 to 1876: Including Grafton until 1735; Millbury until 1813; and parts of Northbridge, Upton and Auburn. Worcester: Sanford & Co., 1878. Benes, Peter. "The Templeton 'Run' and the Pomfret "Cluster': Patterns of Diffusion in Rural New England Meetinghouse Architecture, 1647-1822." Old-Time New England 68: 3-4 (Winter-Spring 1978): 1-21. Brooke, John L. The Heart of the Commonwealth: Society and Political Culture in Worcester County, Massachusetts, 1713-1861. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989. "Carter, Elias," Who Was Who in America 1607-1896. Centennial History of the Town of Millbury Massachusetts Including Vital Statistics, 1850-1899. Millbury: Town of Millbury, 1915 Chase, Gertrude. . "History of the Millbury Federated Church." 1969 Chiat, Marilyn J.
America's Religious Architecture: Sacred Places for Every Community. New York: John Wiley, 1997. The Church Record of the Millbury Methodist Episcopal Church, 1878-1922. Ledger. Millbury Federated Church Office. Crane, Ellery Bicknell, ed. History of Worcester County Massachusetts. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1924 Crane, John C. "Chapter CXL: Millbury." History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Prominent Men. Comp. D. Hamilton Hurd. Philadelphia: J.W. Lewis & Co., 1889. II: 1092-1128 Dempsey, Claire. "Main and Elm Streets: Area H," Form A--Area: Millbury. MHC. 1988 Dempsey, Claire. "Presbyterian Church," Form B-Building: Millbury Form No. 187. MHC. 1988. Dempsey, Claire, and Peter Stott. "Summary Report: Comprehensive Inventory Project, Town of Millbury." MHC, n.d Dempsey, Claire W.., with Peter Stott.
"Millbury: Revised Town Report." MHC Reconnaissance Survey Report, 1989. Eastman, George P. Address by the Rev. Geo. P. Eastman at the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Second Congregational Church, Millbury, Mass. 1902. Pamphlet in the Millbury Federated Church Archives Elander, William A. Letter to Millbury Federated Church, January 16, 1959. 8 pp. Millbury Federated Church Archives. Forbes, Harriette M. "Elias Carter, Architect, of Worcester, Mass." Old-Time New England 11.2 (Oct 1920): 58-71. Goffe, Joseph. Handwritten transcription of passages from the letters. Millbury Federated Church Archives. Originals at the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester. Hamlin, Talbot. "Carter, Elias." Dictionary of American Biography, 1946: III: 533. Hamlin, Talbot. Greek Revival Architecture in America. 1944. Rpt. New York: Dover.
Historical Celebration of the Town of Brimfield, Hampden County, Mass. Springfield: Clark W. Bryan Company, 1879. Full text available online at Google Books. "A History of Millbury." Millbury Public Schools. (http://www.millbury.k12.ma.us/hs/history/) "History of the Proctor Memorial Parish House." Dedication of Proctor Memorial Parish House, the Millbury Federated Church, Millbury, Massachusetts, September 26, 1965. Millbury Federated Church Archives. Kennedy, Roger. American Churches. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1982. Kilham, Walter H. Boston after Bulfinch: An Account of Its Architecture 1800-1900. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1946. MACRIS (Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System). Massachusetts Historical Commission. http://mhc- macris.net/index.htm.
(continued) NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number_9 Page_2 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts Mallary, Peter T. New England Churches & Meetinghouses, 1680-1830. Seacaucus, NJ: Chartwell, 1985. Marlowe, George Francis. Churches of Old New England: Their Architecture and their Architects, their Pastors and their People. New York: Macmillan, 1947. "Millbury Federated Church." http://www.mfch.org/millbury_federated_church.htm. "Millbury, Massachusetts." Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). Massachusetts Community Profile. (http://www.mass.gov/Ehed/docs/dhcd/profiles/186.doc).
150#* Anniversary Celebration of the Second Congregational Church (1834) and the Millbury United Methodist Church (1835), 1986 "One Hundredth Anniversary of the Methodist Church in Millbury" Millbury Federated Church Archives. "The Painting Fund," The Bulletin, Millbury Federated Church 10 May 1930. "Passing of William Howard Taft: Millbury Mourns with NationFormer President's Early Life Here RecalledGuest of Town at Centennial Celebration." Undated, unsourced clipping in the Millbury Federated Church Archives. Pierson, Jr., William H. American Buildings and their Architects: Volume 1, the Colonial and Neoclassical Styles. New York: Oxford UP, 1970 Putnam, George A. "The Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Congregational Church in Millbury, Massachusetts, 1747-1897: A Historical Sermon." Pamphlet in the Millbury Federated Church Archives.
Records of the First Presbyterian Church and the Second Congregational Church, 1827-1862. Ledger. Millbury Federated Church Archives Records of the First Presbyterian Society and the Second Congregational Society, 1827-1851. Ledger. Millbury Federated Church Archives. Records of the Second Congregational Society, 1854 to 1891. Ledger. Millbury Federated Church Archives. Smith, G.E. Kidder. The Beacon Guide to New England Houses of Worship: An Architectural Companion. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989 Tolles, Jr., Bryant F., with Carolyn K. Tolles. New Hampshire Architecture: An Illustrated Guide. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1979 Waters, A[sa] H[olman]. "Report," Millbury March 3'd 1862. Handwritten note in the Millbury Federated Church Whiffen, Marcus. American Architecture Volume 1: 1607-1860. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1981. "Will Enlarge Platform," ca.
1929 clipping presumably from the Millbury Journal. Millbury Federated Church Archives. Williams, Peter W. Houses of God: Region, Religion, and Architecture in the United States. Urbana: U of IL Press, 1997. Withey, Henry F., and Elsie Rathburn Withey. Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased). Los Angeles: New Age, 1970. Zimmerman, Philip D. "Congregational Churches." The Encyclopedia of New England: The Culture and History of an American Region. Ed. Burt Feintuch and David H. Watters. New Haven: Yale UP, 2005. (continued) NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number_9 Page_3 OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts Deeds (listed chronologically) Lydia Waters to First Presbyterian Society, 30 April 1828. Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 263, Page 472. Lydia Goodell to First Presbyterian Society, 30 April 1828. Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 263, Page 473. "Pew No. 11, A. Andrews, Rec'd. and Recorded in the Societys Book of Records page 35 Feby 28 1829 Stephen Blanchard Town Clerk " Deed in the Millbury Federated Church Archives. Second Congregational Society to Second Congregational Church, 29 January 1891. Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 1343, Page 295. Second Congregational Church to Peter Lynch, 2 October 1950. Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 3290, Page 237. Amos C. Howard et ux to Second Congregational Church, 30 April 1955 (Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 3676, Page 151.
Napoleon Lynch to Millbury Federated Church, 2 June 1958. Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 3943, Page 79. According to its Assessors' card, the current deed was recorded in Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 4988, Page 315. Maps and Plans (listed chronologically) A Plan of the Town of Millbury, .... January 1831. Massachusetts State Archives. Detail showing the Old Common and Armory Village, republished in Brooke, pg. 350. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps: 1888, 1894, 1899, 1904, 1913, 1924, 1943. "Plan of Land Owned by the 2d Cong. Church of Millbury, Mass., Feb. 2, 1927," by William I. Thompson. "Plan to Show Division of Property in Millbury Mass. Owned by Peter Lynch, Sept. 20, 1950" by Kenneth Shaw. (end) First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Name of Property 10. Geographical Data Acreageof Property Less than 1 acre UTM References See continuation sheet.
(Place additional UTM references on a continuation sheet) 1. 19 272083 4674796 Zone Easting Northing 2. Zone Easting Northing Verbal Boundary Description (Describe the boundaries of the property on a continuation sheet.) Boundary Justification (Explain why the boundaries were selected on a continuation sheet.) 11. Form Prepared By name/title_ Timothy T. Orwig, with Betsy Friedberg, NR Director, MHC organization Massachusetts Historical Commission street & number220 Morrissey Boulevard city or town Boston state MA Additional Documentation Submit the following items with the completed form: Continuation Sheets Worcester, MA County and State 3. Zone 4. Zone Easting Easting - See continuation sheet Northing Northing date July 2010 _ telephone _617-727-8470 zip code 02125 A USGS map (7.5 or 15 minute series) indicating the property's location.
A sketch map for historic districts and properties having large acreage or numerous resources. Photographs Representative black and white photographs of the property. Additional items (Check with the SHPO or FPO for any additional items) Property Owner (Complete this item at the request of the SHPO or FPO.) name Millbury Federated Church street & number _ 20 Main Street .telephone 508-865-6274 city or town Millbury - state MA zip code 01527 Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C. 470 et seq.).
Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 18.1 hours per response including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Chief, Administrative Services Division, National Park Service, P.0. Box 37127, Washington, DC 20013-7127; and the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reductions Project (1024-0018), Washington, DC 20503 ( 372, Wathingin dun 20 a27121, ata neo ay aoee NPS Form 110-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 10 Page1 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts 10.
Boundary Description The National Register boundary for this property corresponds to the legal boundary of two lots, known as Lots 128 & 129, on the Town of Millbury's Assessor's Map 53. This .55-acre combined parcel contains the Millbury Federated Church (First Presbyterian Society Meeting House) and Proctor Parish House. These lots together are addressed as 20 Main Street. Lot 129 has been the location of the church since its construction in 1828. Lot 128, directly east of the original lot, was acquired by the Millbury Federated Church in 1955. The 1965 parish house addition to the church occupies part of Lot 129 and this contiguous lot. This generally rectangular parcel of the two lots measures 96 ft along Main Street, 296.45 feet along Church Street, and includes along its southern border an unnamed alley treated as a public street.
Boundary Justification The nominated property includes the entire parcel associated with the Millbury Federated Church building since 1955- within the period of significance Due to its early establishment and non-taxed status, the church lot has a somewhat complicated history and no recorded modern survey. Its history is most clearly summarized in a legal opinion from Worcester lawyer William A. Elander in 1959.' The First Presbyterian Society of Millbury secured two adjoining parcels of land from Lydia Waters and Lydia Goodell in 1828, each reserving "to her heirs and assigns forever an undisturbed right of way to pass and repass with teams or otherwise and through said premises and all parts of the same which shall not be occupied and covered by the Church of said Society or their meetinghouse"?
This right-of-way appears to be the alley directly adjacent and south of the church, although part of Church Street may have come from the lot as well, as that boundary appears never to have been surveyed. Sanborn fire insurance maps for the property (1888-1943), for example, show the building and its raised front lawn as an island surrounded by rights-of-way on all four sides. Known today as Millbury Assessor's Map 53: Lot 129, this parcel was never legally transferred from the First Presbyterian Society to the Second Congregational Society, but the title was settled in 1891 when it officially became the property of the Second Congregational Church. The rear lot, known today as Millbury Assessor's Map 53: Lot 128, has an equally interesting history. A two-story apartment house was built or moved there ca. 1920.
(Not present on the 1913 Sanborn map, this apartment house first appears on the 1924 Sanborn map.) In 1950 this lot was set apart from a larger lot owned by Peter Lynch.* As part of that survey, it was discovered that the apartment house behind the church was built partially on the church lot. Lynch secured (continued) ' William A. Elander to Millbury Federated Church, January 16, 1959, 8 pp., Millbury Federated Church Archives. The church requested the opinion to clarify the status of the right-of-way directly south of the church and how it might limit expansion of the building. The letter was accompanied by a color-coded map, now apparently lost. 2 Lydia Waters to First Presbyterian Society, 30 April 1828, (Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 263, Page 472), and Lydia Goodell to First Presbyterian Society, 30 April 1828, (Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 263, Page 473).
3 Second Congregational Society to Second Congregational Church, 29 January 1891 (Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 1343, Page 4 "Plan to Show Division of Property in Millbury Mass owned by Peter Lynch," Survey and Plan by Kenneth Shaw [of] Sutton Mass, Sept. 20, 1950 (Millbury Federated Church Archives). This survey does not appear to have been recorded. NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 10 Page_2 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts a triangular sliver of land from the church, extending from Church Street to the southern alley, to place the house fully on his propertyFive years later, Amos C.
Howard and his wife sold the house and land to the Second Congregational Church.' Thus the current two lots were assembled by 1955, within the period of significance. Because the Millbury Federated Church and its Proctor Parish House extension occupy both lots, for the purposes of this nomination they form the property. It should be noted that two lots contiguous to these church lots are also owned by Millbury Federated Church, but were acquired later on and are not considered part of this property for purposes of this nomination. Lot 136 is a half-acre lot that stretches from Elm Street to Church Street, and was acquired in 1958.? Currently the lot functions as parking, and the only building remaining on this lot (after demolition of the Harrington house and its barn) is a two-car hip-roofed garage.
Lot 135 is a very small lot within the center of the block, .11 acres, which is addressed as 18 Main Street. The lot was acquired some time after the period of significance. It contains a two-story hip-roofed house, built before 1888, which the church rents to tenants. (end) 5 Second Congregational Church to Peter Lynch, 2 October 1950 (Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 3290, Page 237). 6 Amos C. Howard et ux to Second Congregational Church, 30 April 1955 (Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 3676, Page 151). 7 Napoleon Lynch to Millbury Federated Church, 2 June 1958 (Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 3943, Page 79). According to its Assessors' card, the deed was recorded in Worcester Registry of Deeds Book 4988, Page 315.
NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Additional Documentation Page 1 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts Additional Documentation-Photographs Timothy Orwig was the photographer for all the photographs, which were taken on 10 January 2008, and the negatives are in his possession. All of the photographs show the Millbury Federated Church (First Presbyterian Society Meeting House), Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts. 1. Looking southeast, showing the north elevation, west façade and Signboard. 2. Looking northeast, showing the south elevation, west façade and right-of-way alley. 3.
Looking southeast, detail showing the base of the northern column, brick and granite foundation elements, and front lawn Granite Retaining Wall. 4. Looking east, showing the west façade and Signboard. 5. Looking northeast, showing the west façade. 6. Looking north, showing south elevation of church. 7. Detail: looking northeast, showing south elevation doorway hood. 8. Looking south, showing northern elevation of church. 9. Looking southeast, showing northern elevation of church and the ladies parlor extension. Note also the granite posts in the right foreground 10. Looking southwest, showing northeastern corner of church and the eastern elevation of the ladies parlor extension 11. Looking northeast, showing the south elevation of the Proctor Parish House extension. 12. Looking west, showing the east and north elevations of the Proctor Parish House extension. 13.
Looking northwest, showing the east and south elevations of the 1991 Frame Shed 14. Interior, Church: Front of the sanctuary, showing the platform and box-like slip pews. Taken from the northwest corner of the gallery, looking southeast. 15. Interior, Church: Rear of the sanctuary, showing the gallery and box-like slip pews. Taken from the northeast corner of the sanctuary, looking southwest. Notice that the tall window openings light both the sanctuary and the gallery. 16. Interior, Church, detail: Front of the sanctuary, showing the woodwork of the platform supporting the organ pipes. NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Additional Documentation Page 2 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts Additional Documentation - Historic Images (arranged chronologically) Stereoview slide image of the interior, ca. 1884, Second Congregational Church, no publication information, from the Millbury Federated Church Archives. Second Congregational Church, image drawn by Wesson & Merritt, from Second Congregational Church... Annual Leaflet, 1894, Printed by L.P. Goddard, Worcester, from the Millbury Federated Church Archives. "Millbury Center, Millbury, Mass.," colored postcard image ca. 1903, from the Millbury Federated Church Archives. President William H. Taft and his aunt Delia C.
Torrey descending the front steps of Millbury Federated Church, 3 April 1910, from the Millbury Federated Church Archives. Frederick H. Gagnon, "Preliminary Church Street Elevation, Proposed Addition to Millbury Federated Church, Millbury, Massachusetts," from the Millbury Federated Church Archives. NPS Form 110-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Additional Documentation Page_ 3 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts Site Sketch Map Map drawn by Timothy Orwig, based on "Plan of Land Owned by the 2d Cong. Church of Millbury, Mass., Feb. 2, 1927," by William I. Thompson, and "Plan to Show Division of Property in Millbury Mass. Owned by Peter Lynch, Sept. 20, 1950" by Kenneth Shaw.
Circled numbers with arrows indicate the position of photographer and direction of view in the supporting photographs. This detail map is not to scale. IN Frame Shed Extension Parish House Posts : Church -Alla ROW Signboard. Granit 2cbinin Wall? Main stret NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Additional Documentation Page_4 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts Floor Plan: Millbury Federated Church Main Floor & Proctor Parish House (partial) Floor plan assembled by Timothy Orwig, partially based on "Proposed Addition to Federated Church, Millbury, Massachusetts" by Frederick Gagnon, ca. 1965. This floor plan is not to scale.
>2002 IN PEWS AISLE PEWS vestibule PORTICOY NPS Form 1 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Additional Documentation Page 5 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts Floor Plan: Church Basement (partial) & Proctor Parish House Floor plan assembled by Timothy Orwig, based on "Proposed Addition to Federated Church, Millbury, Massachusetts" by Frederick Gagnon, ca. 1965. This floor plan is not to scale.
ClALdRcDr 1N 410sg.tal(2on/a1 CHUNSYCANOKE FIRET PLOOR First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Site Data Sheet Millbury, Worcester County, MA Page 1 of 1 Site Data Sheet First Presbyterian Society Meeting House, Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts Structure/Landscape/Feature First Presbyterian Society Meeting House Granite Retaining Wall Posts Signboard Proctor Memorial Plaques Frame Shed Date of Construction Type of Resource 1828 Building ca. 1877 Structure ca. 1877? Object ca. 1940 Object 1952, 1965 Object 1991 Building Contributing : Direction from the First Architect or Designer or Not (NC) Pres. Society Meeting House (if known) Contributing Elias Carter Contributing W Contributing N Contributing W Contributing NC NE Total: 6 1 contributing building, 1 non-contributing building, 1 contributing structure, and 3 contributing objects.
Stereoview slide image of the interior, ca. 1884, Second Congregational Church, no publication information, from the Millbury Federated Church Archives. L.P. Goddard, Pr., Worcester Second Congregational Church, image drawn by Wesson & Merritt, from Second Congregational Church... Annual Leaflet, 1894, Printed by L.P. Goddard, Worcester, from the Millbury Federated Church Archives MILLBURY CENTER, MILLBURY, MASS: "Millbury Center, Millbury, Mass.," colored postcard image ca. 1903, mfrom the Millbury Federated Church Archives. First Presbyterin Saciety Mecting House 644 President William H. Taft and his aunt Delia C. Torrey descending the front steps of Millbury Federated Church, 3 April 1910, from the Millbury Federated Church Archives. LEELOKIAKE ICHURCH STREET ELEVATION =estrdiie PPEOFOREE ARETION TO ANMEDRLSE-EEE AULIBLRYAMAASARHNSST Frederick H.
Gagnon, "Preliminary Church Street Elevation, Proposed Addition to Millbury Federated Church, Millbury, Massachusetts," from the Millbury Federated Church Archives. First Presbyterian Society Meeting House (Millbury Federated Church, Millbury, Worcester Co., MA) STREET LINDEN STREET CHERRY STREET, SUMMER STREET 53/94 1o/202 NORTH STREET CANAL STREET NY. NH& H GROVE RIVER STREET STREET SOUTH RAILROAD WANE STREET NYNH & H 45107 tois 45/107A STREET STREET ELM 120 RAILROAD 45207 #%=1 STREET STREET /62/1180 TOWN OF MILLBURY MASSACHUSETTS ASSESSORS MAP Legend -Assesior Mao Shect Gri - Aoperty Parcets .
-' Easemena River/Strcam Water Bodkes Wet Aren MAP SHEET 53 CMRPG UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET REQUESTED ACTION: NOMINATION PROPERTY NAME: First Presbyterian Society Meeting House MULTIPLE NAME: STATE & COUNTY: DATE RECEIVED: DATE OF 16TH DAY: DATE OF WEEKLY LIST: MASSACHUSETTS, Worcester 7/26/10 9/07/10 DATE OF PENDING LIST: DATE OF 45TH DAY: REFERENCE NUMBER: 10000722 8/23/10 9/09/10 REASONS FOR REVIEW: APPEAL: REQUEST: N COMMENT WAIVER: N VACCEPT RETURN ABSTRACT/SUMMARY COMMENTS: DATA PROBLEM: N LANDSCAPE: N LESS THAN 50 YEARS: N PERIOD: PROGRAM UNAPPROVED: N SLR DRAFT: N NATIONAL: N N REJECT 9.9.10DATE Entered in The National Regiter Historic Places RECOM./CRITERIA REVIEWER DISCIPLINE TELEPHONE DATE DOCUMENTATION see attached comments Y/N see attached SLR Y/N If a nomination is returned to the nominating authority, nomination is no longer under consideration by the NPS.
iineter Cos uteyim Chuch Ws Prestoptemen Sauicdy Mating foe) 2. Millburg Resbuterian Church Worester Co., MA 3 milteny Cos oonin Chuath 4. Millbary Presbuterien Church Worester Co., MA 5. Milloary Presbuterian Church worester Co., MH 6. Millbuny BreibyTarran Church Worwster Co.; 1. Millbeny Presteterian Church Woraster Co., MA 8. Millbury Presbutarion Church Worcester Co., 9. Millbury Presbuyterian Church Worester Co.," 10. Millbury Phesogitrian Churrch 11. Millbury Phesbyteriom Church Worester Co., MA 12. Milloury Presbuterian Church Worcester Co., MA Bo rasta co, rsbofterien Church y citen ea, nftenin Chuch 16. Milbury Presbyterian Church Worcester Co., MA 16. Millbury tresbyterion Church Worcester Co., MA RECEIVED 2280 AASE BETT CHEACINA JUL 2 6 2010 Jire LIBENe NAT.
FLeri The Commonwealth of Massachusetts VATIONAL PARK SERVICE AOF HISTORIC PLACES William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Massachusetts Historical Commission July 14, 2010 Mr. J. Paul Loether, Chief National Register of Historic Places Department of the Interior National Park Service 1201 Eye Street, NW 8" floor Washington, DC 20005 Dear Mr. Loether: Enclosed please find the following nomination form: First Presbyterian Society Meeting House, 20 Main Street, Millbury (Worcester), MA The nomination has been voted eligible by the State Review Board and has been signed by the State Historic Preservation Officer. The owners of the property were notified of pending State Review Board consideration 30to 45 days before the meeting and were afforded the opportunity to comment.
Sincerely, Betty tredley Betsy Friedberg National Register Director Massachusetts Historical Commission Enclosure CC: Millbury Federated Church E. Bernard Plante, Chair, Millbury Board of Selectmen Cynthia Burr, Millbury Historical Commission Timothy Orwig, Consultant Richard Gosselin, Millbury Planning Board 220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, Massachusetts 02125 (617) 727-8470 - Fax: (617) 727-5128 www.state.ma.us/sec/mhc
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