Richmond Congregational Church
Richmond, Vermont
National Register Nomination
Description
The Richmond Congregational Church is a Colonial Revival style structure
located on the corner of Bridge Street and Church Street in Richmond, Vermont.
Designed by the prominent Burlington architect Walter R. B. Willcox and
completed in 1903, the church is situated on a small rise, with its east
facade "front" looking down a gently sloping, modestly landscaped
lawn toward Bridge Street in the commercial and municipal center of Richmond
village (an area which is listed in the State Register of Historic Places
as part of the Bridge Street Historic District). The church is a wooden,
two story structure, with an exposed basement level, a fieldstone foundation,
cream colored vinyl siding imitating wooden clapboards, and green wooden
shingles. It is roughly cruciform in design, and is built generally along
a north to south axis, with a four bay, two section office extension (constructed
in 1984, in the same Colonial Revival style) projecting westward from the
original structure. Original features include a three-story open bell tower
cradled between the choir and the east transept, numerous triple sets of
double sash windows, an irregular hipped roof, stained glass windows in
the gable ends of both transepts, and green shingles which cover the second
story of the church. Historic interior features include wooden wainscotting,
pews, and a complicated set of wooden trusses supporting the ceiling in
the narthex. Although not pristine, the property nevertheless retains its
integrity of design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association.
Exterior:
Looking at the church from its Bridge Street front, right to left, one
is immediately struck by the stained-glass windows in the facade of the
east transept. A large stained glass window resembling the central arched
sash of a Palladian window dominates this facade. This window is flanked
by two smaller, narrower stained-glass windows, rectangular in shape, which
in turn resemble the sidelights of a Palladian window. These flanking "sidelights"
are located several feet from the central sash. All three windows are set
approximately five feet above the level of the ground. The arch of the central
window springs upwards about five feet into the gable. Several feet above
it, just below the apex of the gable, there are three slot-like windows
of clear glass.
To the immediate left of the east transept is the bell tower. Set back
from the facade of the transept by a few inches, the bell tower has a stained
glass window in its first story similar in size and design to the flanking
windows in the east transept. Slot-like windows similar to those in the
east transept's gable adorn the upper portion of the second story of the
tower (there are three windows in each of its four sides), while green shingles
cover the wall (the first floor has vinyl clapboards). The open third story
of the bell tower has twelve Colonial Revival style posts (three at a corner)
supporting the roof. This roof in turn is crowned by a multi-ball finial.
The main entrance to the church is reached by way of a pedimented Colonial
Revival porch (constructed prior to 1911), located in the angle between
the bell tower and the apse. The entry porch has a slightly projecting pediment
supported by six posts, three at a corner. It also has a cornice with dentils.
Directly across from the top of the porch steps there is a triple set of
double-sash windows, with transoms. Entrance to the church is to the right,
through a set of wood paneled double doors located in the south wall of
the tower.
The apse is a three-sided projecting bay, just to the left of the porch.
It points south down Bridge Street. It has one triple set of windows on
the main floor of its south facade (the side facing Church Street). There
is also one double set of windows on each of the two angled sides of the
apse, both of these on the main floor. The exposed basement level of the
apse has single windows that correspond to the windows of the main level.
These windows are located in the fieldstone foundation.
Attached to the west wall of the choir is a square projecting wing, one
bay wide, with a hipped roof. The western roof surface has a single brick
chimney. The southern facade of this wing has one triple set of windows
on the main floor, while below it on the basement level are smaller, single
windows, each aligned with a window above. These basement windows are located
in the stone wall of the foundation. The office extension runs south from
the west wall of this wing. It runs parallel to Church Street, and is four
bays long and two stories high on its south side. The fenestration on the
entire south side of the building is all single pane, double-sash windows.
The windows on the main level have transoms, while the windows on the exposed
basement level do not.
When viewed from Church Street, the office extension appears to consist
of two separate sections.The first section of the extension, adjacent to
the above-mentioned west wing, is two bays wide. It has two sets of double
windows on its main floor. This section is set back from the facade line
of the west wing and second section, and has a connecting bridge, with a
balustrade, running across its face. This bridge connects the second floor
of the west wing to the second floor of the second section. Below the bridge,
single windows frame a simple glass and panel door. These first floor features
are situated in a green-shingled wooden wall. The second section of the
office extension is two bays wide. It has two sets of double windows on
each floor, with the basement windows located in a shingled wooden wall.
A cutaway corner, facing west, ties this section to its western facade.
It has single sets of double windows on each floor.
The west side, or "back" of the church, is four bays wide,
with four sets of windows on the main level, and two on the basement level.
The windows are all single pane, double sash windows. Looking left to right,
the basement level windows lie underneath the main level windows of the
second and fourth bays. There is also a wooden door (with a single, almost
full-length glass sash) on the first floor of the southernmost bay, to the
left of the window. Projecting up out of the western surface of the roof,
one third of the distance from the Church Street side, a narrow metal pipe
serves as a small chimney. This pipe extends just above the roof line of
the church.
The extension's opposite side, facing north, differs markedly from the
south side in its appearance. It is four bays long, with its two eastern
bays located in a section of the extension which appears to project west
out of the choir from a line flush with the gable end of the west transept.
These four bays are all one story in height, and the two western bays lie
within a gable wing, which projects north from the rest of the extension
(its western wall constitutes part of the above-mentioned "back"
wall of the church) by a depth of two bays.
Fenestration on the entire northern side of the church is extremely limited.
The north-projecting gable wing of the office extension has only two double
sets of double sash windows on its eastern side, and only a small wooden
door (with two large glass panels) in the center of its gable end facade.
The north wall of the narthex likewise has no windows, nor does the eastern
section of the extension between the choir and the north-facing gable wing
(which indeed has only one small wooden door with double glass windows at
its extreme eastern end). The western facade of the west transept is the
mirror image of the east transept, complete with stained glass windows.
There is a small, shed-like structure attached to the north side of the
church. It is cradled in the northwest angle between the narthex and the
west transept. This structure has a roof which slopes downward from the
west wall of the transept (from a point approximately one foot below the
level of the eaves) and two wooden doors. These doors are located in the
structure's north and west walls. Above the shed-like structure, projecting
up out of the eastern roof surface of the hipped roof of the narthex, there
is a second brick chimney. In height and design, this chimney closely resembles
the chimney on the south side of the church.
Interior:
Inside, the church offers a surprise. What had appeared to be the apse
is in reality a parlor, while the chancel lies at the north end of the nave,
within what had appeared to be a narthex (albeit without any actual portal).
The light from the stained-glass windows washes a wooden wainscotting which
rises to the level of the windows, and this light partially illuminates
a complicated series of trusses and cross-beams in the ceiling (which since
1981 have been reinforced by two steel pillars and a steel cross-beam, encased
in wood). The floor is made of wood, but in the parlor this has been covered
by what looks like indoor-outdoor carpeting. The nave itself can be separated
from the parlor by two large wooden overhead doors, which also leave a passage
from the front door to the office wing.
The wooden pews in the church are divided into four sections by three
aisles which run the length of the nave. Looking toward the chancel, left
to right, one sees the following arrangement: eight pews (flush with the
west wall), an aisle, another nine pews, an aisle, nine more pews, an aisle,
and seven pews (flush with the east wall). The pews all curve in order to
create a semicircle, with the concave side of the semicircle facing the
chancel. The ends of the pews all have sloping armrests which rise several
inches above the rest of the pew and which resemble scrolls. The two middle
sections of nine pews also have scroll-like dividers at their mid-points.
Currently, all pews have cloth cushions, and each pew is identified by a
brass number plate.
Artificial lighting is provided by three light fixtures, suspended several
feet from the ceiling. Each fixture features a single glass globe. These
are arranged along an axis which runs from the center of the east transept
to the center of the west transept. In 1979, the middle glass globe was
repaired in such a way as to appear identical with the two original globes.
All other light is natural, the main source of illumination being the stained
glass windows. These windows, donated through the years by a number of different
local individuals and groups (including the now disbanded King's Daughters),
feature motifs which range from a lyre (in the central arched sash of the
western Palladian window) to a Maltese cross (in the central arched sash
of the eastern Palladian window). The rostrum is a semicircular, raised
platform (its convex side faces the nave), which is located several feet
above the floor of the nave. Here the altar is located, set back inside
a niche in the rear wall.
The interior of the office extension is modern in style, but designed
in such a way as to blend in with the Colonial Revival style of the church.
Besides providing room for administrative offices and the pastor's office,
this section has a kitchen, dining room, and a day care center (on the basement
level). Space in this section lends itself to a variety of uses, and this
fact allows the church to serve a number of different community needs within
the same space.
Continue to Statement of Significance
Researched and written by James
M. Moran, graduate student, University of Vermont Historic Preservation
Program