Hello

Here's the Old First Church, Bennington, Vermont.

In 1803 the church elders invited the Master Builder, Lavius Fillmore, to build a new church in Bennington. He had already built 4 churches in Connecticut. The latest had been included in Asher Benjamin's first pattern book, The Country Builder's Assistant, published in 1797.**

Pattern books were architectural guide books for builders. Their images were studied and copied by gentleman scholars and master builders; their instructions studied and followed by apprentices, journey men, and carpenters.

William Pain, in London, had written many pattern books, 8 of which are known to have been available through book sellers and in private libraries in the States. While there is no written record of what pattern books Lavius Fillmore owned or might have seen, I think he must have studied Pain's The Practical Builder, printed in London in 1774.***

Here is the evidence:





This engraving, part of Plate XIV, The Practical Builder, explains the proper design for the 'Frontispiece of the Dorick Order'. Note the fanlight tracery.

Compare Pain's tracery to that in the fanlight of the Old First Church. Fillmore has elaborated upon and refined Pain's design. ****

The columns however, do not match the illustration of a Doric frontispiece. They are topped by Ionic volutes.

In this photograph they look like the ends of rolled up paper. Or maybe balls of white yarn?

This is Pain's 'Frontispiece of the Ionick Order', part of Plate XVI.





The volutes match those of the Old First Church. On the left side the 'entablature' (the section between the door frame and the roof) also matches that of the church.