First Baptist Church and Vestry

This rather charming, small one-story structure has the distinction of being the first ecclesiastical building erected in Sanbornton, a town noted for its outstanding wooden church architecture. Constructed about 1792 on Tower Hill above Sanbornton Square, it was moved one mile to its present site in 1833. Utterly functional with minimal embellishment, the First Baptist Church is highlighted by Greek Revival–era paired front gable entrance doors, flanked by identical tall, double sash windows with shutters. This gable facade is topped by a belfry (likely added at the time of the move) with a low, pyramidal roof set on a plain square base. Like other early meetinghouses in the Lakes Region, the interior consists of a single, rectangular room, very basic in its decor and furnishings. Similar Belknap County examples may be examined at Belmont (Province Road Meeting House, see BE12), Gilmanton (Smith Meeting House, see BE9) and New Hampton (Dana Meeting House, see BE38). A significant renovation in 2018–2019 involved lifting the church to pour a new foundation and build rooms for Sunday School and storage, as well as the construction of a five-bay addition to the north, which houses restrooms, a new entryway, and a church office. Slightly to the southwest of the First Baptist church is the one-story wood-frame and clapboard vestry, a vernacular building with no stylistic detailing dating from c. 1830.