Memorial Washington Reformed Presbyterian Church

	Memorial Washington Reformed Presbyterian Church
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	W. Highland Avenue, Elgin, Illinois
Coordinates	42°3′51″N88°23′28″W / 42.06417°N 88.39111°W Coordinates: 42°3′51″N88°23′28″W / 42.06417°N 88.39111°W
Area	less than one acre
Built	1844
Architect	William and Daniel Fraser
Architectural style	Greek Revival
NRHP reference #	80001376 [1]
Added to NRHP	November 19, 1980

Last updated April 24, 2019

Memorial Washington Reformed Presbyterian Church is a historic church in Elgin, Illinois. It was built in 1844, but has not had regular service since 1906. Due to the infrequency of services, the church earned the moniker The Once-A-Year Church. The simple, vernacular Greek Revivalchurch building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

A church building or church house, often simply called a church, is a building used for Christian religious activities, particularly for Christian worship services. The term is often used by Christians to refer to the physical buildings where they worship, but it is sometimes used to refer to buildings of other religions. In traditional Christian architecture, the church is often arranged in the shape of a Christian cross. When viewed from plan view the longest part of a cross is represented by the aisle and the junction of the cross is located at the altar area.

Elgin is a city in Cook and Kane counties in the northern part of the U.S. state of Illinois. Located roughly 35 mi (56 km) northwest of Chicago, it lies along the Fox River. As of 2017, the city had an estimated population of 112,456, making it the eighth-largest city in Illinois.

Illinois is a state in the Midwestern and Great Lakes region of the United States. It has the fifth largest gross domestic product (GDP), the sixth largest population, and the 25th largest land area of all U.S. states. Illinois is often noted as a microcosm of the entire United States. With Chicago in northeastern Illinois, small industrial cities and immense agricultural productivity in the north and center of the state, and natural resources such as coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base, and is a major transportation hub. Chicagoland, Chicago's metropolitan area, encompasses over 65% of the state's population. The Port of Chicago connects the state to international ports via two main routes: from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois Waterway to the Illinois River. The Mississippi River, the Ohio River, and the Wabash River form parts of the boundaries of Illinois. For decades, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport has been ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and, through the 1980s, in politics.

History

The church building was designed by William and Daniel Fraser, who modeled it after a church they previously attended in Scotland. It was built in 1844 by Scottish and Scots-Irish immigrants, many of which became the church's first members. The church last held regular services on September 9, 1906. Descendants of the early church members organized a committee in 1916 to oversee the care of the church and its adjacent cemetery. This organization holds the only services in the building, a once-a-year gathering of its members every June. This unusual trait earned the church the nickname "The Once-A-Year Church". The church building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 19, 1980.^[2]

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

The building is rectangular and 24.33 by 38.33 feet (7.42 by 11.68 m). The church was originally laid on a wooden foundation; the present stone foundation dates to the 1860s. It is best described as a vernacular Greek Revival building. The east and west facades each feature three double sash windows with green shutters. The main entrance is on the south, flanked by pilasters. The double doorway features a standard wooden cornice lintel, above which is a carved sundial. The south facade also features two windows similar to those on the east and west. The north side features no windows. The inside features one room with its original unfinished wooden floor. The pews and pulpit are also original. A bronze memorial tablet was added near the entrance in 1924.^[2]

Vernacular architecture category of architecture based on local needs, construction materials and reflecting local traditions

Vernacular architecture encompasses the vast majority of the world's built environment, and thus resists a simple definition. It is perhaps best understood not by what it is, but what it can reveal about the culture of a people or place at any given time. The sheer range of global building types and developments--from Mongolian yurts to Japanese minka to American roadside commercial strips--suggests that vernacular architecture is everywhere, but tends to be disregarded or overlooked in traditional histories of architecture and design. As geographer Amos Rapoport has famously written, vernacular architecture constitutes 95 percent of the world's built environment: that which is not designed by professional architects and engineers. While such an understanding has its limitations, it nonetheless indicates the vastness of the subject and helps us recognize that all aspects of the built environment can impart something about the society and culture of a people or place. If nothing else, vernacular architecture cannot be distilled into a series of easy-to-digest patterns, materials, or elements. Vernacular architecture is not a style.

A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes", that form a frame to hold panes of glass, which are often separated from other panes by glazing bars, also known as muntins in the US. Although any window with this style of glazing is technically a sash, the term is used almost exclusively to refer to windows where the glazed panels are opened by sliding vertically, or horizontally in a style known as a "Yorkshire light", sliding sash, or sash and case.

The pilaster is an architectural element in classical architecture used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall surface, usually treated as though it were a column, with a capital at the top, plinth (base) at the bottom, and the various other elements. In contrast to a pilaster, an engaged column or buttress can support the structure of a wall and roof above.

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References

↑ National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
1 2 http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/pdfs/200447.pdf

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[nris-1] National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.

[nrhp-2] 1 2 http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/pdfs/200447.pdf


Memorial Washington Reformed Presbyterian Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places


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Location	W. Highland Avenue, Elgin, Illinois
Coordinates	42°3′51″N88°23′28″W / 42.06417°N 88.39111°W / 42.06417; -88.39111 Coordinates: 42°3′51″N88°23′28″W / 42.06417°N 88.39111°W / 42.06417; -88.39111
Area	less than one acre
Built	1844
Architect	William and Daniel Fraser
Architectural style	Greek Revival
NRHP reference #	80001376 ^[1]
Added to NRHP	November 19, 1980