Our Purpose and History

Purpose:

The purpose of the Bar Harbor Congregational Church (UCC) is to bind together followers of Jesus Christ to share in the worship of God and in making God's will dominant in the lives of men and women as exemplified in the life and death of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we covenant with the Lord and one another, and do bind ourselves in the presence of God, to walk together in all God's ways as revealed to us in the blessed word of truth.

History:

The Bar Harbor Congregational Church was established on May 20, 1883. The congregation met in the Union Meeting House or "White Church" as it was commonly called. The Town of Eden was incorporated in 1796 and renamed later to the Town of Bar Harbor. A schoolhouse was erected in the village of Bar Harbor about 1820 that was also used by the settlers as a place of worship. When a new schoolhouse was built in 1853, the old schoolhouse was razed and the Union Meeting House was built in its place. All religious denominations used the Union Meeting House until about 1870 when the population of the village of Bar Harbor grew enough to support separate churches. The Congregationalists acquired title to the Union Meeting House and built a granite church on the site in 1888-1889. This church burned in 1942 and was replaced on November 7, 1951 by the present structure that was designed to be similar to the old White Church.

The White Church or Union Meeting House is shown above in a sketch by an unknown artist with the initials G.P.C. The photograph below shows the granite church. This photograph is a computer-enhanced and cropped version of an old post card.