St. James Episcopal Church, Laconia New Hampshire

History of the Building

St James was built in 1964 on land purchased by the Wain family, who's Bungalow House was moved to another location an the lot and used as the parish rectory. The church was designed by Hanover architect Frank J. Barrett two years after he left Granger Associates to open his own practice. The church's gable ends were decorated with stained glass windows designed by Barrett and Orin Skinner, one of which used glass from the stained glass windows in the congregation's previous church. Sold in 2013, the congregation removed the stained glass windows for future use. The gabled ends of the building were given a new fenestration that is substantially different from the original design.

St. James Episcopal Church built their first church on Pleasant Street in Laconia in 1894 (Illustrated Laconian. 219-220). By 1961 the church was located in a crowded downtown section of the city on a very small lot lacking both parking and expansion facilities.

In June 1961 Rubin Wein sold this 1.3 acre property with bungalow-style residence to St. James Episcopal Church. Ground was broken for the church in the fall of 1964. The Wein house which had been located in the center of the lot was moved to the north side for use as a rectory. The church and adjoining assembly hall were placed in the southeast corner of the lot, close to the street with parking in the rear. The church was described in a lengthy article appearing in the statewide AIA publication, Granite State Architect, in March-April 1966. The architect of the new contemporary church was Frank J. Barrett of Hanover. The General Contractor was C. and L. Construction Co., Inc.

In designing the church, the architect was asked to create a feeling of closeness between the congregation and the clergy. In order to do so, the choir area was located in a loft over the narthex at the rear of the church instead of the customary location in the front of the church between the nave and the chancel. The 1966 article notes that "the most striking aspect of the church is the stained glass windows, one at the front over the altar, and another aver the font at the rear'. The stained glass over the altar (west end of church) incorporated glass from the old church. The new windows to the rear of the church (east facade) depicted symbols of the Baptism. The windows which were predominantly in deep reds and blues and were designed by Barrett and Orin Skinner, president of Charles J. Connick Associates of Boston. Barrett also designed the natural oak pews and other wooden furnishings. The total cost of construction was approximately $164,000. The church complex was dedicated in June 1965.

In 2013 St. James Episcopal Church voted to sell the property to the Boys and Girls Club of the Lakes Region. With the exception of the windows depicting the Stations of the Cross which were retained by the Church for future use, the stained glass windows were sold by the church to a firm in Atlanta, Georgia. The windows were replaced by heavily-insulated, bullet-proof clear windows intended to give the facility a more secular appearance. The interior furnishings of the church were also removed including the pews, pulpit, lecterns as were the raised steps leading to the altar. Today only a few pews survive along the perimeter of what was the sanctuary. The space is now used as a basketball court/recreation center. The classrooms in the basement and the assembly room to the north remain unchanged.

Architect Frank J. Barrett (1912-1999) was born in Framingham, Massachusetts and grew up in Cambridge where he attended the Rindge Technical School. He began his studies at MIT in 1932 and received a Bachelor of Architecture in 1937 and a Masters' degree in 1941. While at MIT, he was exposed to the work of Walter Gropius who was at Harvard during this period and toured Gropius's Lincoln home with Gropius and a number of MIT students shortly before it was completed. Barrett was also exposed to more traditional architectural designs. Early in his career he worked as a draftsman/designer far Edward T.P. Graham working on the design of a church in Roxbury, for Ralph Harrington Doane and for the Diamond Match Co. where he was responsible for planning residential subdivisions in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. Barrett also worked for a time for the Federal Public Housing Authority. During World War II he served in the Philippines and Japan. After the war, in 1946, Barrett joined the office of Alfred T. Granger Associates of Hanover along with another young architect, W. Brooke Fleck. Like many firms of the period, Granger Associates was kept busy with designs for new schools, built with the assistance of Federal funds. Barrett and Fleck's designs during their time at Granger Associates helped introduce the slab on grade school design to northern New England. During the fifteen year period Barrett worked at the firm, Granger Associates designed some 68 schools. One of the last was an elementary school in Laconia. Barrett's designs were not limited to schools; he designed a passive solar house for his family at 1 Mitchell Lane in Hanover in the 1940s and also designed a number of other residences in the Upper Valley, outside the Granger practice.

Brooke Fleck left Granger Associates in 1956 and Frank Barrett departed in 1961 to form his own four or five person office in Hanover. He and his wife were members of the St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Hanover and during this period of his career he designed a number of Episcopal churches in the area thanks to church contacts. These included St. Paul's Church and Parish House in White River Junction, Vermont; an addition to St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Hanover and Edgerton House, also for St. Thomas Church. St. Paul's Church in particular shares some similarities with St. James in Laconia including the use of laminated wood beams and trusses. The commission for St. James Episcopal Church in Laconia also resulted from word-of-mouth from church leaders.

Other Barrett designs from the 1960s included Married Students Housing for Plymouth State, a West Lebanon branch bank and a retail/office complex on Main Street in Hanover known as Nugget Arcade. In 1971 Barrett designed the Sanborn Cottage Building at the Laconia State School. Frank J. Barrett continued to practice architecture in Hanover until 1985. In recent years his son, Frank J. Barrett, Jr. has given many records from his father's career to Historic New England. The Historic New England archives include a number of materials specific to St. James including a notebook recording details of the construction and a watercolor rendering of the exterior by Barrett.

The Church has been converted into a recreation center for the Boys & Girls Club of the Lakes Region.

Building Description

Located at the northwest corner of North Main Street and Tremont Street, the former St. James Episcopal Church is a contemporary complex constructed in 1964 with a gable-roofed church at the south end, sheathed in vertical redwood boards. A lower, single-story brick connector extends from the north of the church, serving as the main entrance to the facility as well as linking the church building to an assembly room to the north which has a parallel but lower and broader gable front and is also sheathed in redwood. The buildings are set on a poured concrete foundation and the roofs are covered in asphalt shingles and display projecting eaves which are painted white. Giving verticality to the complex are two brick stacks, square in plan and linked by concrete members. The twin towers are slightly higher that the front gable of the church and rise from the northeast corner of the church. One of the towers contains a chimney and the other was intended for bells. Until recently a cross was mounted on the face of the north tower.

The church's steeply-pitched east gable front was altered in 2013 when the stained glass windows were removed. Today, the front gable is punctuated by a central rectangular opening with 3 x 3 large panes of fixed glass. As originally designed, the three stained glass panels displayed a strong sense of verticality, outlined in white surrounds that contrasted with the redwood and extended from the foundation to the peak of the gable. The stained glass windows which had a pointed top were divided into smaller diamond and triangular shapes by diagonal mullions with geometric panels below the choir loft.

The south and north side elevations of the church are punctuated by rows of nearly continuous horizontal window openings containing clear glass as they did originally. These windows are tucked under the lateral eaves and retain original steel windows, as well as bands of horizontal windows punctuating the basement level. At the west end of the church corresponding to the front of the nave the stained glass windows have also been removed. The original five-section stained glass which extended to the top of the gable has been replaced by a simpler rectangular opening with 3 x 2 glass panes. The area surrounding the new window reflects the need to fill in to match the original redwood siding. A lower two-story projection spans the west gable end of the building and originally contained the sacristy and choir robe storage. The west wall retains original metal casement windows on each level, taller on the upper level, with distinctive metal strap hinges. The spandrel area between the first and second level windows consists of white panels that coordinate with the white surrounds to emphasize the verticality of the four central window bays. There is also an original wooden door at each end of the west elevation consisting of three horizontal glass panes above a lower wooden panel. Above each entrance is a paired casement window.

The connector linking the church and assembly room to the north has entrances on both the east side facing Main Street and on the west side, facing the parking lot. On the east side, the adjacent wail is brick and the metal double doors are set into a grid of windows with white panels below. The signboard which once announced upcoming church services remains to the south of the entrance doors, at the base of the brick tower. The entrance on the west elevation of the connector, facing the parking lot, is recessed slightly and the adjacent walls are sheathed in vertical redwood siding.

The assembly room at the north end of the church complex remains as it was designed with original casement windows set into vertical bays with upper fixed panels. The east and west gable ends each have three bays with peaked upper caps and white panels below the casement windows. The north wall is punctuated by four groups of regularly spaced window openings with white surrounds. The two central windows consist of a band of four casements while the two outer openings have two casements each. The area to the north of the assembly room is enclosed by a wooden fence and contains a playground. To the rear (west) of the church parking lot is a small shed of recent construction.

The interior of the church has exposed laminated Douglas fir arches with a peak 36' above the floor. The roof decking is tongue and groove Western white pine. The wails are painted sheet rock and the floor is covered with vinyl asbestos tile. A few original oak pews remain. At the east end of the sanctuary the choir loft is accessed by two simple wood staircases. The exterior wail of the loft is sheathed in vertical oak boards which at one time matched the pews and furnishings in the sanctuary below. The nave is supported by pre-stressed concrete double tees which are visible in the classrooms below the church.

The floor of the entrance lobby is covered in Vermont slate. The assembly hall, like the main church, displays laminated arches. The original hanging globe light pendants have been replaced by fluorescent lighting.

The contemporary St. James Episcopal Church, with its laminated wood arches and pre-stressed concrete tees, exhibits the new technology available to architects working in the mid 20^th Century modern period. It was one of a number of new structures built by various denominations during the post World War II period to house growing congregations. Among its local contemporaries was the Our Lady of the Lakes Roman Catholic Church constructed in Lakeport in 41965 according to designs by architect Daniel Tully. Although the Lakeport church is a very different design, with a hyperbolic paraboloid concrete shell, it too illustrates how advancements in structural and mechanical systems gave rise to new unlimited possibilities in architectural design during the period.

Photographs of St. James Episcopal Church