Sanbornton Square

Three contiguous wooden buildings at Sanbornton Square—the Congregational Church, the Sanbornton Town Hall, and the Woodman Sanborn Academy—display the finest and the most distinctive qualities of early nineteenth-century New Hampshire public architecture. Forming a row on the east side of Meeting House Hill Road, the group illustrates the transition from the late Federal to the Greek and Gothic Revival styles, effectively combining elements of each. Set in an outstanding collection of late Federal and more recent residential architecture at the town’s historic center, these buildings are among the very best of their eclectic type in upper Merrimack River Valley of New Hampshire.

The pivotal and most conspicuous structure in the row is the Congregational Church, erected and dedicated in 1834 on the site of the town’s first meetinghouse (1775). Making the primary visual statement is the west end facade with its slightly projecting gable-roofed pavilion possessing two identical doorways on the first story and two windows above. In the closed pavilion pediment there is a segmental-arch, louvered fan, while on each side of the projection are single tall windows surmounted by louvered fans and fitted with shutters (the three windows in each side wall are identical). Centered on the gable roof above the pavilion rises a nicely scaled, square, two-stage tower, the lower stage of which has small, pointed-arch louvered fans on each wall surface set under a thick cornice. The wall surfaces of the upper stage of the tower also feature pointed-arch louvered fans, but they are functional as well as decorative, and open into the belfry. In addition to the louvered fans, the Gothic character of the church is underscored by the presence of pointed pinnacles linked by low balustrades and rising above the corners of each tower stage, as well as flat pinnacles applied to the corners of the front doorway casings.

Just a few yards to the north of the Congregational Church, also with gable end facade facing the road, is the two-and-one-half-story Woodman-Sanborn Academy building, in recent years used by Harmony Grange No. 99 and currently the Sanbornton Public Library. Raised in 1825–1826, this quite austere, low-pitched-roof structure is essentially Federal in its appointments, noticeably in the beautifully proportioned three-stage bell tower set on the roof ridge above the facade. The masterful combination in the tower of the plain, square lower stage; the square, open balustraded belfry; and the octagonal, louvered lantern with dome, spire, and weathervane, is an aesthetic delight. The Woodman-Sanborn Academy, with its Neo-Federal front doorway and one-story ell, is one of a very few academy buildings dating from the mid-nineteenth century that survive in the central and northern counties of the state.

Slightly to the south of the church and completing the row is the Sanbornton Town Hall, also erected in 1834 on a portion of the old meetinghouse site. Similar in general form to buildings at nearby Crockett’s Corner (see BE33), and at Gilmanton (BE6), New Hampton (BE37), and Belmont (BE10), this small, single-story, clapboarded structure blends together modest Federal and Gothic decoration. The facade is penetrated by a central doorway with sidelights and flat Gothic pinnacles applied at the corners of the lintel. Positioned in the closed, triangular pediment above is a Federal semi-elliptical louvered fan. Centered on the front ridge is a single-stage tower, its flat roof cap encircled by a balustrade with pinnacles at each corner, reflecting similar embellishment on the Congregational Church. In front and to the northwest of the town hall is a periodically restored, octagonal, Stick Style open bandstand crafted c. 1870 and compatible with the buildings constituting the row.