Town Hill’s Empty Church Building Awaits a New Calling
VIS Seeks Solutions For Church's Future
TOWN HILL—The green and white church on the Crooked Road once hosted congregants who mourned, married, and celebrated within the structure. It had a Sunday school and worship services and many a potluck. Once 65 students went to Sunday school there.
It was a place with purpose.
Now, the West Eden Church, also known as the Town Hill Federated Church, is looking for some purpose again.
The church is owned by the Town Hill Village Improvement Society (VIS), which accepted it as a gift back in 2006. The church is unoccupied, slowly withering away and in need of repairs though its beauty and community-focus is still evident in the high metal ceilings, the organ, and the stained-glass windows where each collection of colorful glass has a name and with that name comes a story.
“We really can’t keep up with it,” said VIS President Perry Moore of the building, which requires repairs and insurance coverage. The VIS has replaced the roof within the last ten years, which cost approximately $15,000.
The VIS also has to maintain its Town Hill Community Hall with the fire station and Mountain View Cemetery. The community hall’s roof is in need of repairs after wind damage from 2024.
The group has rented the church during its time caretaking it. They have considered other uses such as potentially turning it into housing for firefighters or converting it into a dwelling because of the need for affordable and available homes on the island.
That takes money though.
And they believe it’s likely that the cost of converting it would require a mortgage and then the rentals might not cover the mortgage, making the financial loss greater.
The church’s deed restrictions have been an issue. That’s because the covenants say that it can only be used by a Christian church and that church’s message must be Bible-based. That limited the building’s use.
However, a few years ago, attorney and former state legislator Lynne Williams researched the legality of those restrictions, imposed on the sale by the Federation Church. According to Moore, since there are likely no members of that congregation left, Williams said the restrictions don’t apply to the twenty-year-old covenants. The two fifty-foot-wide lots have a significant vernal pool at the side away from the road.
Now, the VIS is hoping for either a buyer to maintain the building or someone with legal standing to take over.
“Our main intent is to see if people still have standing as the Federation Church,” Moore said as VIS members gathered on the lawn outside this week. Along with Moore, Treasurer Kathy Schultz, Secretary Matt Gerard, and member-at-large James “Jim” Perkins gathered to discuss and brainstorm and keep planning next steps.
The building was last truly used by the First Light Assembly of God, which had signed a 20-year lease with the West Eden Village Improvement Society, which is the original name for the Town Hill VIS. The society owns the building.
Architect Frederick Biebesheimer volunteered to do drawings of the structure, Moore said.
The more than 100-year-old structure has seen better days. They’d like it to see good days again.
Its chapel construction began in 1907. It was restored, mildew removed, bleach used everywhere, dehumidifiers ran in 2007 for the centennial and so that the First Light Assembly of God congregants could use it. That use was allowed after a petition to the Federation Church. Current Bar Harbor Town Councilor and VIS member Randy Sprague fixed the furnace. Mohr Signs donated a sign. People planted and painted, landscaped.
That First Light Assembly moved on several years ago and the church which served as such a community center is vacant again.
It is, Perkins said, a minor iconic thing that was once a heart of a community.
“It’s a terrible shame,” said James “Jim” Perkins. “I wish the community was still strong enough to get it done.”
Photos by Shaun Farrar and Carrie Jones.
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Acadia Brochures of Maine.
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How about another restaurant? Maybe a Mexican one. :)