Waquoit Congregational Church Restoration
Location: 15 Parsons Lane, Waquoit MA
Applicant: Waquoit Congregational Church
Allocation: $190,000
Year/Article: April 2009, A43
In 2008 the Waquoit Congregational Church received$190,000 from the CPFund to restore the steeple and roof of the 1848 Gothic Revival style church. Church members planned to raised the balance of $26,376 needed for the work.
Since the church’s construction, its steeple has acted as a beacon for sailors heading into Waquoit Bay as well as to pilots flying into the Falmouth Airport. In addition to natural deterioration over time, the steeple and roof had sustained additional damage during Hurricane Bob in 1991, one of the costliest hurricanes in New England history.
The church sits at the southwest end of Waquoit Village, on the small triangular green at the intersection of Route 28 and Parsons Lane. Ten of Waquoit’s early families agreed in 1847 to build a meeting house on that site and the church was dedicated in 1848, with eighteen members, as the Second Congregational Society of East Falmouth. The congregation assumed care of the cemetery overlooking Waquoit Bay. The church is the oldest public building in Waquoit Village and it heralded Waquoit’s transition to a fully developed and independent village. It is part of the Waquoit Village Historic District and listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of that district. It eventually changed its name to the Waquoit Congregational Church and was legally incorporated as a church in 1954.
The restoration of the steeple and roof were completed in 2010. In 2011 the Church applied for and received an additional $136,424 from the CPFund for Phase II of the restoration, work on the historic exterior siding, corner boards and cornices. When that work was completed in 2013, the congregation re-dedicated the church building.