The Shiloh Temple, now Shiloh Chapel, is a historic religious facility at 38 Beulah Lane in Durham, Maine. Built in 1897, the surviving building is a small portion of a once-extensive religious enclave established by the evangelical Christian leader Frank Sandford, exhibiting a unique expression of religious and summer retreat architecture. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.[1]
Shiloh Temple | |
 1901 photo of the temple complex | |
   | |
| Location | 38 Beulah Lane, Durham, Maine |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 43°58′49″N 70°2′50″W / 43.98028°N 70.04722°W |
| Area | 4 acres (1.6 ha) (listed area) |
| Built | 1897 |
| Architectural style | Late 19th And Early 20th Century American Movements |
| NRHP reference No. | 75000203[1] |
| Added to NRHP | May 12, 1975 |
Description and history
editThe Shiloh Temple stands on a property overlooking the southern bank of the Androscoggin River, a few miles south of Lisbon Falls, off the north side of Shiloh Road. The surviving portion of the temple is a four-story structure, its ground floor a raised basement of brick, and the rest a frame structure with a mansarded roof. A seven-stage tower projects from the street-facing front, square in shape except for the crowning open circular belfry and cupola.[2]
Frank Sandford was an ordained Baptist minister, who in 1893 left his ministry in Topsham, Maine on a quest to evangelize the world. He attracted a large number of followers, and construction of the Temple began in 1897. The temple's property grew to include a large quadrangular complex, of which the present building is the only surviving element. At its height, the complex had 500 rooms and space for more than 1,000 residents.[3] Life at the complex was strictly regulated by Sandford, who claimed to be a new Elijah, and many of his followers sold off their possessions to join his "Holy Ghost and Us" society.[3]
In the early 1900s Sandford took a number of his followers on a round-the-world proselytizing mission aboard the yacht Coronet.[2] Following a misguided and undersupplied voyage to Greenland, in which six crew died of scurvy and related illnesses, he was arrested on manslaughter charges in 1911.[3] Sandford's "Kingdom" project was ended by legal action in 1920 following the death of a Shiloh resident, and most of Shiloh's buildings were demolished in the 1950s. Low level occupation continued, and the present Shiloh Chapel is a successor to Sandford's legacy.[3]
A minister of the Holy Ghost and Us Society, George W. Higgins, was a victim of New England's last tarring and feathering incident in 1899.[3]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- ^ a b "NRHP nomination for Shiloh Temple". National Park Service. Retrieved February 23, 2016.
- ^ a b c d e Shirley Nelson, Fair Clear and Terrible: The Story of Shiloh, Maine. Latham, New York: British American Publishing, 1989.