Congregational Church

Among the prominent buildings from Ludlow's prosperous post–Civil War years is this mature Shingle Style church, a type rare in Vermont. The church was made possible by local pride and the philanthropy of former residents. The site, the design, and the financing were the gifts of Daniel A. Heald, a local lawyer who became president of the Home Insurance Company in New York City. His designer, Hapgood, of New York City, later designed public buildings in Hartford, Connecticut. The construction was by Smith of Middlebury. The church has a cross-gabled mass marked on the southeast corner by a slightly tapering, lighthouse-like tower with an open columnar belfry and convex conical cap, and on the northeast by a shorter octagonal tower. The forms are tied into a compact unity by the uniform shingled surface and coordinating flared aprons and hoods. Details are Colonial Revival, including Tuscan columns, small-paned sash windows, and Palladian windows. Interiors include a second-floor hammer-beam sanctuary with arced pews above a memorial parlor and library. The Boston donors of the first-floor library, which served the entire town until a public library was built, also funded a neighboring shingled, gambrel-roofed parsonage in 1905. Since its completion, the church's original green-stained wood-shingle roof has been replaced with slate and a lateral porch next to the octagonal tower has been closed. Otherwise, the church and its parsonage have survived intact and remain one of the state's most striking Shingle Style ensembles.