First Congregational Church
National Register of Historic Places

First Congregational Church

Vermontville, Eaton County, Michigan
Listed
September 2, 1971
Type
Building
Period
Civil War
Ref No.
71000390

About this property

The First Congregational Church is a historic church located at 110 S. Main Street in Vermontville, Michigan. It was built in 1862 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and is part of the Historic American Buildings Survey. Vermontville was settled in the 1830s by a group from East Poultney, Vermont who were followers of the Congregational minister Sylvester Cochrane. Cochrane established the First Congregational Church of Vermontville in 1837, and served as its first pastor for five years. At first, the congregation held services in private homes, and then moved to a new log schoolhouse. In 1844 they built the two-story Vermontville Chapel and Academy to serve as both a church and an academy. In 1861, Rev. Orange H. Spoor came to the pastorate, and the congregation quickly grew. In 1862, the congregation began work on this building, for use by the church and society. Due to a dispute over wages, the church was not completed until 1864. The First Congregational Church is a white rectangular, one-story building with a gable roof, corner buttresses, and a central square entrance tower topped with a belfry and an octagonal spire that reaches approximately 110 feet. It has a gable roof and sits on a rubble foundation. The church measures sixty feet six inches by forty feet. There is a double paneled entry door in the base of the tower. Two semi-circular arched windows in square heads are in the front of the church, and four windows are along each side of the building. On the interior, the church has an entry vestibule leading to a rectangular auditorium with a gallery above. The pulpit is on a raised platform. Ten pews, likely original, line each side of the center aisle. The wood trim is painted light yellow, and the walls a light green; the same color predominates in the stained-glass windows. Ornamental sheet metal ceiling pieces were added in the late 19th century. Media related to First Congregational Church (Vermontville, Michigan) at Wikimedia Commons First Congregational Church of Vermontville (NACCC)

Location

341 S. Main St.
Vermontville, Eaton County, Michigan
42.62920, -85.02528

Categories

ARCHITECTURERELIGION
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Vermontville Opera House
Industrial
0.2 mi
Vermontville Chapel and Academy
Industrial
0.5 mi
Sunfield Grand Army of the Republic Post No. 283 Hall
Industrial
9.3 mi
Michigan Central Railroad Charlotte Depot
Industrial
10.5 mi
First Congregational Church
Industrial
10.6 mi

Questions about this property

When was First Congregational Church listed on the National Register?

First Congregational Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 2, 1971.

What type of historic resource is First Congregational Church?

First Congregational Church is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for First Congregational Church?

The period of significance for First Congregational Church is recorded as the civil_war era, specifically around 1862.

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