Copperopolis Congregational Church (also known as Copperopolis Community Center) is a historic church building at 411 Main Street in

Copperopolis, California Copperopolis is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Calaveras County, California, United States. The population was 3,400 at the 2020 census, up from 3,671 at the 2010 census. The town is located along State Route 4 and i ...

. The church was built in 1866 and designed in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

style; it is the only Gothic Revival building remaining in Copperopolis and one of two in

Calaveras County Calaveras County (), officially the County of Calaveras, is a County (United States), county in both the Gold Country and Sierra Nevada, High Sierra regions of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the ...

. The brick church features a

Gothic arch A pointed arch, ogival arch, or Gothic arch is an arch with a pointed crown meet at an angle at the top of the arch. Also known as a two-centred arch, its form is derived from the intersection of two circles. This architectural element was part ...

entrance and windows, a

gable roof A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The pitch of a gable roof c ...

, and a

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

. The church held

Congregational Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christianity, Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice Congregationalist polity, congregational ...

services until it was leased to the

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Christianity, Reformed Protestantism, Protestant tradition named for its form of ecclesiastical polity, church government by representative assemblies of Presbyterian polity#Elder, elders, known as ...

; it became a Congregational church again in 1874 and remained so until 1895. In 1903, the

Independent Order of Odd Fellows The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a non-political, non-sectarian international fraternal order of Odd Fellowship. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Evolving from the Odd Fellows, Order ...

bought the church and converted it to a lodge hall. The Odd Fellows owned the church until 1939, when it became a community center. The church was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on December 30, 1997.

References

External links

* Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in California Gothic Revival church buildings in California Churches completed in 1866 Buildings and structures in Calaveras County, California 1866 establishments in California National Register of Historic Places in Calaveras County, California {{California-church-stub