{"id":84191,"date":"2018-06-06T00:18:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T04:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wend.ca\/?p=84191"},"modified":"2021-12-29T20:38:44","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T01:38:44","slug":"the-old-round-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/?p=84191","title":{"rendered":"The Old Round Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this secluded, quiet pocket of Vermont, there is a large, red, arched bridge that sees traffic from mostly pickup trucks and all-terrain vehicles. On one side of the bridge is a small township that has a population of roughly 4,000 people. On the other side is Richmond’s Old Round Church (1812), which is essentially the heart of the community. <\/p>\n

This is not a truly round church like those stone medieval round churches that you see in places like the UK<\/a>. Rather, it is made of wood and because of this form, the “round church” is a sixteen-sided polygon.<\/p>\n

Born during a period of wartime disunity (1812: US, Canada, and Britain), this church went against the grain of Protestant discord and became the home to 5-religious denominations: Baptists, Christians, Congregationalists, Methodists, and Universalists. In essence, it was a shared church and meeting space that all residents could use. <\/p>\n

The building was built by volunteers for the sum of $3079.86 ($45,071.95 in today’s dollars); and, the construction materials were paid for through the sale of private church pews. The bell came later and was cast by Henry Northey Hooper<\/a> in Boston (1851). Ringing the bell is a manual process and generally happens only during weddings. <\/p>\n

When we visited the site it was closed; the building is only open to the public during the summer months.<\/p>\n