Seventh-Day Adventist Church (Mapleville Methodist Episcopal Church)

Concrete blocks cast to resemble rough-hewn granite were particularly popular for foundations, small commercial buildings, and the occasional house during the early decades of the twentieth century. Their use for more monumental work, as here, reflects aspiration well beyond budget. Implacably textured, implacably gray, the assertive blocks build a series of ponderous shapes out in front of the gabled body of the building. These are graduated (left to right) from big to little, with flat and angled planes bluntly opposed. At one corner, a chunky tower with prominent angled buttresses; then a swollen bay window; finally, a miniature octagonal turret projecting three quarters out of the opposite corner. The shapes are clumsily impressive; the technique is folkishly quaint. Dull glints of color from opalescent stained glass windows strain to make an impression against the grayness.