A real godsend Buying and transforming an old Belfast church

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Like the Blues Brothers, Loanne Spaulding was on a mission from God.

A restoration veteran with impeccable taste, Spaulding knew the Christian Science church off Route 1 in Belfast would make a fabulous house. Every Sunday, she and her husband, Bruce, would drive by the stone-and-shingle structure on their way to church. It was crying out for salvation.

“One Sunday it had gone up for sale,” she said over tea on a recent morning. When she went for a tour, she says, “I fell in love. I literally fell in love.”

That was 1993. The Spauldings already had restored a sea captain’s house in Searsport, and they recognized that the church had good bones, despite a few aesthetic concerns, including a pink-painted sanctuary with matching wall-to-wall carpeting.

“I saw what it could be,” Spaulding said. “I’ve always been drawn to interesting architecture. Buildings that weren’t particularly meant to be houses were always sort of interesting to me, a schoolhouse or a church.”

According to the Republican Journal, ground was broken for the church on July 4, 1904, where Belfast’s first meetinghouse once stood.

“The site is a most beautiful one,” the article reads, “on high land overlooking the city, the harbor, and the bay.”

The structure took more than two years to build, and in 1907 it was dedicated as a Dutch Reform church. Christian Scientists purchased it in the 1960s, and in a series of renovations, removed the original lighting fixtures and stained-glass windows. The stonework in the rear of the building was removed to make way for a corridor of reading rooms, and at some point, the church’s bell made its way to the Penobscot Marine Museum.

“My goal was to restore the building as much as possible and still keep the integrity of it,” Spaulding said.

This winter, HGTV will feature the home, along with a church in Saco, on its “ReZONED” series, which focuses on the transformation of public buildings into private homes. During the six-year renovation, Loanne had a transformation of her own: She has since started her own interior design firm called, appropriately enough, Reformations.

“It was always a part of me,” she said. “I was always doing over something, refinishing, painting, wallpapering. It was natural.”

Despite the building’s original use, the space never felt

particularly churchlike to her. The pews and a few oak relief panels were all that remained. Instead, the church’s exterior reminded her of an English castle, so she drew up plans for the house’s most important room with that in mind.

“I wanted the kitchen to look very Old World,” said Spaulding, seated at an antique oak table in the dining nook.

Inspired by a company in England that specializes in cabinetry made out of antique wood, Spaulding sketched out a design and brought it to Gerald Peters of Victorian Millwork in Sangerville. The resulting pine cabinets and larder (pantry) are finished with a combination of three pigments rubbed in with wax and fronted with chicken wire instead of glass, for a vintage look.

The custom-designed tile backsplash by Antiquity Tile of Hampden incorporates swirling oak leaves and acorns, a motif Spaulding adores. Granite countertops and honed stone flooring in warm, muted shades complement the look. A substantial wooden beam, which holds up the back of the house, was incorporated into the kitchen island.

“I tried to make it look like it would’ve been like this all along,” Spaulding said.

It does. So does the luxurious bathroom off the kitchen, with its deep soaking tub, polished brass fixtures and rich oak paneling, which they found in the lectern. It was all that remained of the original woodwork.

“I wanted to make something of this original architectural salvage, but I knew it would have to be small,” Spaulding said. “Our friend refers to this as the bishop’s bathroom.”

A modern shower with the words “cleanliness is, indeed, next to godliness” stenciled around the top completes the suite.

In the master bedroom, tall doors from a Grange hall, capped with mossy green velvet curtains, form the headboard to the king-size bed. A subtle floral duvet, plaid bed linens, a mound of pillows and a matching rug round out the look.

The former choir room now houses a washer and dryer, and the lectern is now a spacious closet. The sanctuary, with its soaring ceilings, is the only room that remains unfinished. The Spauldings did rip up the carpet and have the floors refinished, and they had a highly efficient radiant heating system installed. But the walls are still pink, and a loft area is still unused. The couple plans to move to southern Maine in the next several years, so that will be a project for another family.

The bell tower serves as a cozy guest room, and a second guest room features Moorish windows (similar to Gothic but with a more dramatic peak at the top) and a continuation of the home’s rose, burgundy, moss green and sage color scheme. Antique furniture and accent pieces stay true to the home’s spirit, if not its religious roots.

“I think if you’re a preservationist at heart, anything goes,” she said.

That sentiment carries through to her landscape design as well. Over time, she carved a courtyard and gardens out of a former parking lot. A tiny wood cottage from a girl’s camp, which the Spauldings have taken with them on all of their moves, serves as a potting shed and sitting area. Loanne gave it leaded, stained-glass windows and dressed up the interior with rose-painted wicker furniture.

Stonewalls, mature plants, a mossy slate patio and a wrought iron gate give an ages-old feel to the garden, despite the fact that it’s only been there a few years. Likewise, a monument carved with the words “The Little Stone Church on Meetinghouse Hill” could’ve been there since 1907, but it actually came almost a century later.

“That’s been my aim all along,” Spaulding said. “To make the whole house, inside and out, look like it’s been here.”

Mission accomplished.

Kristen Andresen can be reached at 990-8266 and kandresen@bangordailynews.net.