The Round Church was built in 1812-13 under the direction of local craftsman William Rhodes as the town meetinghouse and place of worship for members of five Protestant denominations. Significant for its rare design and well-preserved detail, it is perhaps the only surviving example of an early 19th-century 16-sided wooden meetinghouse. Eighteen men worked a combined 922½ days to erect the building, with Rhodes, as head carpenter, receiving $3000 for labor and materials, three other men receiving from $12 to $20 per month, and the rest serving as volunteers. Built in the simple Federal style, the church measures 50 feet in diameter with 16 exterior sides, and Rhodes hid the 16 large corner posts behind 32 interior sides to make the interior seem more round than the exterior. Its funds came from townspeople known as proprietors, who purchased box pews before construction; the final list included 65 proprietors from a town of 935 residents: 5 Baptists, 2 Methodists, 6 Christians, 23 Universalists, and 29 Congregationalists. The interior remains much as it was when built, though the pulpit was lowered two steps and some box pews near it were removed for town meeting tables and voting booths. Over time the five denominations stopped worshiping there and the building became the responsibility of the Town of Richmond. Since its opening in 1814, Richmond held its annual town meeting there for 160 years, until structural problems closed the building to public gatherings in 1973. In 1976, residents voted to deed it to the Richmond Historical Society for 40 years so it could qualify for grants not available to municipal buildings, and $180,000 was raised for restoration. On June 19, 1996, the National Park Service of the US Department of the Interior designated the Round Church a National Historic Landmark for its historic value to the nation.
