{"nrhp_refnum":"85003371","name":"First Congregational Church of Blandford","other_names":["Old White Church"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"North St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Blandford","county":"Hampden County","state":"MA","lat":42.18203689200004,"lon":-72.92859664199995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-10-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story Federal-style wooden meetinghouse on North Street in Blandford, Massachusetts, built in 1822-23 and locally known as the Old White Church. It sits on a 1.2-acre lot on a hill overlooking Blandford Center.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is a well-preserved Federal-style New England meetinghouse and a distinctive, little-altered example of work by builder/architect Isaac Damon. It is also significant as a focal point in the development of Blandford Center and as a visual symbol of the town. It is cited under criteria A, B and C at the state and local level.","narrative":"Perched on a hill above Blandford Center, this white clapboard meetinghouse on North Street was built in 1822-23 for the town's Congregational society. It is five bays wide and five bays long, with a three-bay pedimented porch, Doric pilasters and a three-stage steeple about ninety feet tall. It replaced an earlier meetinghouse across the road that took some sixty-five years to finish. The design is credited to Captain Isaac Damon, a Connecticut River Valley builder and architect whose work is unusually well documented for his era. The steeple and porch are characteristic of his churches, and the fanlights over the entrances closely follow a design by Asher Benjamin. A renovation in 1866 moved the pulpit and changed the pews and window sizes, yet the interior still feels late Federal. The church also hosted town meetings and became a local landmark known as the Old White Church.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Isaac Damon","architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Occupied and in fair condition, in religious use; renovated in 1866 with few changes since.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:56.632054-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/89/7952/63795289/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/85003371.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003371/37b012bad4-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003371/37b012bad4-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Congregational_Church,_Blandford_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Congregational_Church,_Blandford_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795289","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Congregational_Church_of_Blandford","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5452840"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/hampden-county/first-congregational-church-of-blandford-85003371/"}