Lovell Meeting House Lovell, Maine

Text courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Parks Service. Minor transcription errors or changes in formatting may have occurred; please see the Nomination Form PDF for official text. Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.

The Lovell Meeting House in the Oxford County town of Lovell is a building erected between 1796 and 1798 to serve as the town of Lovell's religious and secular assembly space. The site was first set aside in 1780 as the location for a meeting house, a training ground and a cemetery for the nascent community. Originally built as a two-story building with a high pulpit and gallery, the building was reduced in height by at least three feet in the 1820s. In 1852 the local Congregational body built a new structure and the Meeting House shed its religious association and evolved into a civic structure. At times referred to as the Lovell Town House or Town Hall, this is still the present day building in which the local community gathers for town meetings, which are the semi-annual events that are the political backbone of small town democracy in Maine. In addition to serving as a polling place, the former Meeting House was outfitted with a stage at the turn of the twentieth century, and has been the location of various forms of entertainment and recreation. The Lovell. Town House is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A, in the area of politics and government. The period of significance commences in 1796, when the building was erected and continues until 1964, which is fifty years before the present. By virtue of the building's former use as a religious structure Criterion Consideration A also applies.