Middle Ridge United Methodist Church

Small but picturesque and arguably pretentious, this red frame church serves a rural congregation near the edge of Pine Creek Gorge, Pennsylvania's so-called Grand Canyon. The church's frame and interior date from c. 1880 and are part of a church that was moved to this site in 1897 and refinished as it appears today. The walls are of long flush boards cut to resemble bricks, and the prominent wooden quoins and lintels simulate ashlar. Projecting corner entrance towers of different heights and with differently shaped Gothic-inspired pyramidal roofs give the church an asymmetrical silhouette. The church's doors open onto small vestibules that lead to the three-aisle nave, whose original c. 1880 vertical tongue-and-groove oak wainscot and molded window surrounds remain intact. New pews were installed at the turn of the twenty-first century. The United Methodist Church in Blackwell (PA 414, near the border of Tioga and Lycoming counties), built about the same time, has similar simulated brick siding and quoins. Though less picturesque than Middle Ridge Church it is equally eclectic, with Georgian proportions, a pointed-arched entrance with simple tracery, and a short bell tower.