Mission

In keeping with the ancient covenant of the Sanbornton Congregational Church: "For the worship of God and the welfare of all," our Mission and Senior Outreach Committees try to help others in many areas of need and in times of disaster. We use our time, talents, money and ourselves to accomplish this.

Some of our projects include:


· Prepare and serve meals at the "Bread and Roses Kitchen"

· Contribute to area food pantries

· Work on Habitat for Humanity homes

· Donate clothing and volunteer work to The Thrift Clothes Closet

· With our neighbors at the First and Second Baptist Churches of Sanbornton, organize, prepare and serve Sunday Dinners for Seniors that provide elderly citizens with opportunities to socialize as well as good food twice a month in return for a small donation

· Sponsor Twin Rivers Community Volunteers: an agency of the church that supplies drivers who use their own cars to take elderly, disabled persons to medical appointments and shopping

· Support a variety of projects at the Women's Prison in Goffstown

· Donate annually to Unicef, Tools of Hope, and the Heifer Project among others and UCC collections for Neighbors in Need, the Church World Service Blanket Drive, One Great Hour of Sharing, and our Church's Wider Mission

· Support local, domestic, and international charities as needs arise

History

Organized in November 1771 when the first minister, Reverend Joseph Woodman, was installed, this building is the second building of the Sanbornton Congregational Church. The first meetinghouse was buillt on Tower Hill on the South side of Centre Cemetery. In 1834 the original building was taken down beginning in April and built over at this present location. The "new" meetinghouse was dedicated on September 24, 1834. It is on the National Register of Historic Landmarks, as are the Sanbornton Public Library, formerly the Woodman Academy, and the Town Hall. Upon the church's construction, it was voted to sell spaces or horse sheds to church members at the rear of the building. In the 1950's the Sanbornton Fire Department fire trucks were kept there and earlier it was used as a workshop for the school. The last remaining horse shed was removed in 2000.

In 1990 a handicapped access to the church was completed leading out the right side of the chancel area. At the rear of the church in1996 a memory garden was created outside by the side door. A granite bench memorializing Janet Norman, late wife of the Reverend Leslie Norman (1992-2002), and a peace pole also adorns this area.

The church's one story main block has a shallow, shorter, two-story gable roofed entry pavilion on it's street gable end. Above the pavilion rises a two-stage belfry tower. The main block and the pavilion both have clapboarded walls, sill boards, cornerboards, and the same pedimented box cornice with moldings and frieze.

The two bay wide pavilion has two entries (each a paneled door with a built-in stained glass window, paneled side trim with corner blocks topped by paneled triangular "finials"), 12/8 sash windows in the second story, and a semi-elliptical louvered fan in the pediment accent the building. The main block is lit by tall, large, stained glass windows topped by Gothic arhced blind louvers and trimmed by molded, arched frames with "impost blocks," two windows in the street gable end and three windows in each side facade. The first stage of the tower, clapboarded with cornerboards and a box cornice with moldings and frieze, has one painted arched louver with moded frame in each public facade.

The clapboarded upper stage, trimmed by wide paneled corner pilasters and another box cornice with moldings and frieze, has a Gothic arched louver set in molded frame with "impost blocks"'in each public facade. The upper stage is surrounded by and crowed with balustrades with simple balusters and corner posts topped by tall pyramidal "pinnacle."

Address:
P.O. Box 126
Sanbornton, NH 03269