First Parish Church (Brunswick, Maine)

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First Parish Church in Brunswick, Maine, is an Open and Affirming congregation of the United Church of Christ. The church building stands at 217 Maine Street on a rise between downtown Brunswick and Bowdoin College. Built in 1845–1846 from a design by famous architect Richard Upjohn, the wooden Gothic Revival meetinghouse features lancet-arched doors and windows, a buttressed tower, and vertical board-and-batten siding. It originally had a tall spire, but a storm in 1866 blew it down and it was not replaced. The attached vestry was added in 1883, and Bowdoin College helped fund the construction and has used the space for events. The church is part of the Federal Street Historic District, and the congregation dates back to 1717, making this the fourth building on the site.

A notable moment in the church’s history is that on May 2, 1851, Harriet Beecher Stowe, sitting in pew 23, had a vision of an enslaved man wounded by his enslaver, an experience that inspired her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. After years of disrepair, it was restored and reopened in 2004, earning a Maine Preservation Honor Award in 2006. The current Senior Pastor is Rev. John Allen.