Architecture

Lucian Rumble, a Trustee of the Pine Grove Church,

 was the designated contractor for the building project.

  He recalled a theater that he had seen in his travels,

 and he envisioned a church of similar design:

Sanctuary

Visitors to our church enter and walk a center aisle (Photo 1) all the way to the pulpit (Photo 2).  

Then visitors turn to face back towards the church entry, proceed to either the right or left, and walk up a 25-degree inclined floor to seat themselves in one of the rows of wooden chairs (Photo 3).  

The chairs stay in place on the slanted floor because their rear legs are positioned into holes drilled in the flooring (Photo 4).

 At the top of the incline, steps go up to further seating offered on benches in a balcony (Photo 5).  

Handsome railings with elegant balusters and finials line the edges of the slanted floor as well as the front edge of the balcony (Photos 6 and 7). These finials are repeated in the pulpit furnishings.  

The plastered ceiling arches seamlessly over the sanctuary (Photo 8).  This creates a room with exceptional acoustics!

 Church Exterior

Outside, decorative details further enhance the building.  Perhaps they were not meant to be elegant but more akin to folk art.  One description says the exterior resembles a Swiss chapel (Photo 9).

 An arch extends across the entire front of the church .  Inverted arches decorate the front peak (Photo 10).

There are roofs placed above each window (Photo 11).

Special attention is given to the front windows; they have graceful arching roofs (Photo 12).

The eaves along the sides and the corners of the roof are adorned with gingerbread-type corbels (Photos 13 and 14).

Decorative arches and gingerbread corbels are repeated in the bell tower (Photo 15).  

The weathervane tops the church with stars (Photo 16).

Windows

Outside, in the front, there are three windows with triangular panes above the entry door (Photo 17).  

These triangular windows are positioned at the floor level of the balcony, so they are rarely noticed from inside the sanctuary (photo 18).

In the front, there is also a simple, but graceful, centered arched window situated closer to the peak (photo 19).  Inside, this window is a focal point of the balcony (Photo 20).

Inside, besides the balcony window, rectangular windows are those most noticed (Photo 21).  Sometimes these windows extend below the slanted floor (Photo 22), so they are not all completely visible!  

These windows appear quite simple, but they have sometimes puzzled parishioners and visitors.  Was the sunlight angling into the sanctuary playing tricks or did the window glass have a golden tint? (Photo 23)  Church records  and a newspaper article confirm that these windows have a textured and amber-colored cathedral glass.  This glass is not original to the church.  In 1946, new church windows were donated by former residents or in memory of departed  church members.

The congregation would not have had the financial resources for intricate stained-glass windows, but the textured glass with the light amber tint does lend a warm glow to the sanctuary! (Photo 24)