Evangelical Baptist Church

The Evangelical Baptist Church is significant architecturally as an early 19th-century church that was adapted to the needs and tastes of later generations. Beginning as a Greek Revival church, it subsequently acquired an attractive Victorian exterior and a fine early 20th-century auditorium.

After the only church in the village of Meredith Bridge (which later became the separate municipality of Laconia) burned on February 27, 1836, the owners of the church, the Meredith Bridge Religious Society, met on March 15, 1836, to consider building a new church. The society members voted to raise $3500 for a new building by selling shares at $25 apiece. The society also voted to accept the donation of a lot at the corner of Church and Main Streets. There the church was erected in 1836. Unfortunately, the surviving records say nothing about its designer or its builders. The new church was built to serve the local Congregationalists. So, in 1837, ownership was transferred to the Meredith Bridge Congregational Society (later the Laconia Congregational Society).

The Congregational Church appears in old photographs as a gable-roofed building with a three-stage tower atop its Main Street gable end facade. The building was Greek Revival in style, with four wide pilasters supporting a pedimented gable. The photographs reveal that it was a rather attractive example of the church architecture of its period. But, they also reveal that little, if any, of the church's original appearance can be detected in the present building. For, within a few decades, the building seemed old fashioned, and therefore unattractive. The fine three-stage tower with its octagonal cupola, for example, was described by a local newspaper as "that not very ornamental appendage" and as an "old ill-looking apology for a steeple".

In 1871, the Congregationalists, have decided to update the building and turned to a local architect-builder, Arthur L. Davis (1830-1922). Davis not only designed the renovation, but (save for the masonry) also contracted for the remodeling. The entire building was raised six feet to provide a new lower level, with a vestibule, a large vestry, a kitchen, and other service rooms. The old steeple was removed. A new three-story tower was built projecting slightly from the main facade of the church. Above the tower, soared a new steeple with belfry and clock stages, and a tall octagonal spire that reached some 170 feet above the street (and, perhaps just coincidently, fourteen feet above the spire of the new nearby Unitarian Church, making it the tallest structure in the community). The exterior of the church was completely remodeled, notably with a new box cornice and large arched stained glass windows in the second story. The interior was, likewise, thoroughly renovated. From the lower vestibule, two stairways lead up to two new upper vestibules and the large auditorium that had been completely rebuilt. An important feature of the auditorium was an addition on the rear gable end, which contained an arched recess behind the pulpit, lit by a narrow arched window in each side wall. By the time the church was rededicated in February of 1872, the original Greek Revival building had been obliterated, replaced by a thoroughly Victorian church. The new building was a quite pleasing and distinguished one, a tribute to Davis's skill as a designer.

But the taste of the congregation continued to change. In 1889, the auditorium was again remodeled. The pews were rebuilt, the walls plastered and frescoed, and a pressed metal ceiling installed. Even these changes could not long hold back the tide of fashion. As the 20th century began, the church was again seen as old fashioned by a new generation of Congregationalists. Many church members wanted a more modern church of brick or stone. And outside pressures came to bear on the building. The city government began to consider the condemnation of the church, both to enlarge the grounds of the new city library to its north, under construction in 1901-03, and to widen Church Street, which, with the layout of Depot Square (now Veterans Square) in front of the new railroad station, had become a major thoroughfare. The future of the Congregational Church was settled dramatically on December 6, 1902, when the Masonic Temple, a Main Street commercial block less than 200 feet from the church, was destroyed by fire. When the fire reached the gunpowder stored in a hardware store in the Temple, the resulting explosion severely damaged the Congregational Church. Nearly all of the ground floor windows and four of the large arched windows in the second story were destroyed. And much of the plaster was knocked off the walls.

Faced with this extensive damage, the Congregationalists soon decided to abandon the church. On January 5, 1903, the Congregational Society established a committee to negotiate with the city, and on June 1, the society accepted the city's offer of $6500 for the property. On June 22, the Congregationalists voted to build a new church and to sell the old building to the People's Christian Church Society. The People's Christian Church, founded in 1890 and opened in 1892, had been using the old county courthouse as a church.3 They were happy to buy the old Congregational church for $1000 ($600 for the building and $400 for the organ). The bill of sale was signed on October 7, 1903. And late November saw a Concord contractor at work moving the church forward into the Square, then turning and backing it onto a new site, about 200 feet away. The lot on Veterans Square opposite the railroad station was not actually purchased until February 1904, although the owner had previously agreed to the sale of the land and the placement of the building. (As the building is being nominated for its architecture, the usual prohibition against moved buildings being listed on the National Register would not apply.)

Since the arrival of the Evangelical Baptist Church on its present site, the exterior of the church has seen only one truly important change. The great hurricane of September 21, 1938, toppled the upper steeple--the belfry and clock stages and the spire. A new bell was placed in the third stage of the tower. And a new octagonal spire on a short octagonal base was designed by Laconia architect Norman Randlett and erected in 1939 by contractor Elmer Boynton & Son. The new spire was of a different design than its predecessor. But the designer did make the spire compatible with the church, through such devices as the roofs of the louvered dormers, which echo the hoodmould below. The only other notable changes to the main block are found at the main entrance, which has acquired concrete sidewalls, carpeting on its steps, and new paneled doors. The concrete block rear wing, built in 1957 by contractor Sylvester Rand according to the plans of architect Clifford Broker, although important to the church's Sunday school program, is almost invisible, is largely hidden by the other buildings that tightly enclose the church on both sides. All that the passerby sees of the rear wing is the compatible clapboarded Square facade of its narrow two-story section. Basically, the exterior, with the major exception of the steeple, appears today as it did in 1872. This Victorian exterior places the church among a handful of significant Victorian eclectic churches in Belknap County, for Laconia's three Baptist churches, the Evangelical Baptist Church, the South Baptist Church (1878-79), and the United Baptist Church of Lakeport (1891-92), are really the only important churches of the style in the county.

The interior has been much more radically changed. The upper and lower vestibules still retain most of their Victorian details. But, the lower level has been drastically remodeled in recent years. The vestry was rebuilt as a chapel in 1971. In its present condition, it is a thoroughly modern room, with modern carpeting, wall sheathing, and ceilings. The restroom of the vestibule, the new closets off the chapel (built in 1981), and the pastor's and secretary's offices (enlarged after a small fire in 1982) are also strictly contemporary rooms. The kitchen and the main block's classroom have also been modernized, although not as completely.

The upper level was also drastically altered, although with more interesting results. It is not clear when the present semielliptical platform or the four newer stained glass windows were installed in the auditorium. But most of the upper story was rebuilt in 1923. The northwest end of the upper level was divided into two levels with a classroom between the two vestibules and three upper classrooms, all with pressed metal walls and ceilings, and all connected to the auditorium by large openings with molded frames and balustrades. The auditorium was "completely remodeled with steel ceiling and walls",4 the pressed metal walls with their paneled pilasters, elaborate cornices, and large panels, and the pressed metal ceiling, with its even more elaborate offering. The choir rail was erected on the platform.

There have been a few changes to the upper level in recent years. Two upper classrooms have been sealed off from the auditorium by plasterboard walls, while the central room has been subdivided to create a storage closet and an audio room. The auditorium has seen the installation of carpeting and modern pews. Modern grooved wooden wainscoting now sheathes its walls, the platform front, and the choir rail. A new side door provides an emergency exit. But, basically, the auditorium and the old classrooms retain their early 20th-century appearance. Their most notable features are the elaborate pressed metal walls and ceilings, which seem to have survived intact. Pressed metal interiors of the size and elaborateness seen in the auditorium, or even in the classrooms, are quite rare in central New Hampshire. To date, the pressed metal walls and ceilings that were so popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries have attracted little scholarly attention, so it is difficult to place the church interiors in any perspective. We can say that, in the Lakes Region, these rooms, particularly the auditorium, are among the best examples of this intriguing phase of interior design. Certainly, they are worthy of preservation and recognition.

The Evangelical Baptist Church has had a long and complex architectural history. As it stands today, the church can boast one of the best Victorian exteriors in Belknap County, and one of the few large and elaborate pressed metal interiors in the Lakes Region. This combination, although unusual, is nevertheless deserving of National Register recognition.