LOVELL — The Lovell Meeting House has been entered in the National Register of Historic Places according to Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.

This designation indicates that the property has been documented, evaluated and considered worthy of preservation and protection as part of the nation’s cultural heritage.

The Lovell Meeting House in the Oxford County town of Lovell is a building erected between 1796 and 1798 to serve as the town’s religious and secular assembly space. The site was first set aside in 1780 as the location for a meeting house, a training ground and a cemetery for the nascent community.

Originally built as a two-story building with a high pulpit and gallery, the building was reduced in height by at least three feet in the 1820s. In 1852 the local congregational body built a new structure and the Meeting House shed its religious association and evolved into a civic structure.

At times referred to as the Lovell Town House or Town Hall, this is still the present day building in which the local community gathers for town meetings, which are the semi-annual events that are the political backbone of small town democracy in Maine.

In addition to serving as a polling place, the former Meeting House was outfitted with a stage at the turn of the 20th century and has been the location of various forms of entertainment and recreation.

The Lovell Town House was recognized for its local role as the seat of civics, politics and government starting in 1796 when the building was erected.

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