Stockton Springs Community Church, formerly the Stockton Springs Universalist Church, is a historic church at 20 Church Street in

Stockton Springs, Maine Stockton Springs is a town in Waldo County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,533 at the 2020 census. Stockton Springs is home to Fort Point State Park and Fort Point Light, both located on Fort Point, a peninsula on Cape Jellison. ...

. Built in 1853, it is a fine example of transitional Greek Revival-Italianate architecture, and is particularly noted for the ''

trompe-l'œil ; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...

'' frescoes on its walls. It was listed on 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 ...

in 1985.

Description and history

The Stockton Springs Community Church is located in the center of Stockton Springs, on the west side of Church Street, just south of its junction with

United States Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, ma ...

. It is a single story wood-frame structure, with a gable roof and clapboard siding. The building corners are pilastered, and the deep eaves are studded with paired brackets. The main facade is three bays wide, with a central entrance sheltered by a deep gabled pediment. Windows in the flanking bays are four narrow sash, in two-over-two pairs with bracketed cornices above. In the gable there is a small half-round window. The interior condition (like the exterior) is relatively unaltered, with original pews and pulpit. It is dominated by the ''

'' frescoes on its walls, which depict classical motifs, with a triumphal arch over the pulpit, and Greek floral designs on the ceiling. The church was built in 1853 for a Universalist congregation, and the artwork was executed by

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

-based artist William Lawlor. It is one of four churches in Maine with ''trompe-l'œil'' artwork, and is the oldest of those. The church has served as a non-denominational community church since the 1930s.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Churches in Waldo County, Maine Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Italianate architecture in Maine Churches completed in 1853 19th-century Unitarian Universalist church buildings Unitarian Universalist churches in Maine National Register of Historic Places in Waldo County, Maine Italianate church buildings in the United States

Description and history

See also

References