Overview:
The Antrim Historical Society has finally obtained the deed to the town's historic "Brown Church" after several years of delays. The church, which has been in the town since 1904, was donated by the surviving trustees of the Antrim Church of Christ, but the donation was held up due to a tax lien on the building. The Antrim Historical Society plans to restore the building for use as a community center, a museum, and storage archives, and also hopes to use it for concerts, theater, and other community events.
The Antrim Historical Society now holds the deed to the town’s historic Brown Church on North Main Street, ending a two-and-a-half-year effort to transfer the 1904 building to the organization.
“We are thrilled to announce that the Antrim Historical Society is now the proud steward of the historic Church of Christ at 100 Main Street — the beloved ‘brown church’ that has graced our town since 1904,” said Bill Nichols, President of the Antrim Historical Society.
A building with deep roots
Built in 1904, the brown, shingle-style church was originally the Woodbury Methodist Episcopal Church. The church has housed different congregations over the decades, most recently, the Antrim Church of Christ, which purchased the building from the Christian Science church.
Lee Davis, a former member of the church, and his sister-in-law, Trudy Dean, represent the trustees of the Antrim Church of Christ.
“Two and a half years ago, my brother-in-law moved out of the country, my mother-in-law died, and it kind of left me holding the bag, along with my sister-in-law, to determine what we might do with the building,” Davis said.
Since the former congregation had vacated the property and had no use for the historic building, Davis, who grew up in Antrim, approached Nichols to ask whether the Historical Society would be interested in taking over the church. AHS “jumped at the opportunity” to take over the building, and the group began the process of having the deed transferred from the trustees of the Antrim Church of Christ to the Antrim Historical Society.
“Bill said, ‘Of course, the Historical Society would want the building,’ and they were thrilled. We, the trustees of the church, just wanted the building to serve the Antrim community. We have always been interested in giving to the community. For us to be able to give back and donate that building to the Antrim community — that’s what we always envisioned,” Davis said.
“A lot of things fell through the cracks”
The historic church was donated to AHS by the surviving trustees of the Antrim Church of Christ, who were the most recent owners of the building. The group first began the process of donating the church to AHS nearly three years ago, but the donation was held up when a title search revealed a tax lien on the building.
In October 2023, Helene Newbold, treasurer of the AHS board, requested the church’s tax records, and discovered there was a lien on the property.
“We started looking into the deed, and we found out there was a lien on it,” Davis said. “We didn’t know that; we had no idea. I was not the treasurer, but my name was on the original purchase. There were only three of us left who had been involved in the original purchase, and none of us received any notification about the lien.”
According to Davis, the former treasurer of the church had died, and other trustees had moved away. Davis, a certified accountant, began to look into how there could be a tax lien on the church when the building had never been used as anything but a church and should have been exempt from taxes.
Gordon Allen, chair of the Antrim Community Board, said the church had not paid taxes for its entire 100+ year history.
“No one understood how there could be a tax lien on the church,” he said.
Digging deeper, Davis learned that the church had failed to file some paperwork, causing the church to lose nonprofit status with the Town of Antrim.
“The previous treasurer did not have a lot of experience in getting the paperwork done to maintain nonprofit status, and a lot of things fell through the cracks. The state still said we were a nonprofit, but the town has their own little form, separate from the state, and we didn’t know about that and we forgot to file it, so then we were no longer a nonprofit with the town,” Davis said.
After the church’s nonprofit status lapsed, the town began to mail tax bills to the last known address for the former treasurer, in Hillsborough. According to Allen, 44 tax bills addressed to Antrim Church of Christ were sent to a PO Box in Hillsboro that had been closed. The bills were returned to the town and filed away, and as far as Davis is aware, there was no further attempt by the town to contact any other former members of the church.
Davis said he wishes someone from the town offices had simply walked next door to ask his brother, Rick Davis, who runs Rick and Diane’s Pizza, how to reach him or the other members of the church when the tax bills starting coming back, but that didn’t happen.
“Obviously, my brother knew where I was, everyone knew we were involved with the church. I don’t know why somebody didn’t just ask. We had no idea this was happening; we never saw the tax bills. But we’ve moved on, and we’re moving ahead, and we’re just glad it has all worked out,” Davis said.
Davis admits responsibility on the part of the church.
“We should have informed the town that we had a new address; we were just doing the best we could. Unfortunately, no one really ever looked at having a plan for that building, it just sat there, and it began to fall apart. The church definitely bears some responsibility,” he said.
According to state law, towns must make a reasonable effort to locate property owners when tax bills are returned to the town.
“That part didn’t happen,” Allen said. “We’re not sure why.”
Abatement denied, petition blocked
In January 2024, Davis filed a tax abatement with town, requesting the town take what money the church had left and forgive the rest of the lien. The town refused to forgive the lien, and, with the lien increasing every day and still unpaid, subsequently took the deed to the church.
In spring of 2024, more than 100 town residents signed a petition asking for a special Town Meeting to request that the Select Board forgive the back taxes on the church and thereby enable the town, which was now the legal owner, to donate the building to AHS.
The Select Board denied the request for a special town meeting on the grounds that Town Meeting does not have the authority to forgive tax liens, and that this power lies solely with the Select Board.
Board Chair Michael Ott stated repeatedly that the board supported the project.
“I just want to go on record and make it very clear that the Select Board wants the Historical Society to get the church. The problem is, this isn’t the method to do it,” Ott stated in June 2024.
The board took the position that if the town forgave the lien on the Brown Church, other property owners could follow the same route, “donating their properties to get out of paying back taxes.”
Davis says it’s possible that the town was under the impression that the church somehow had the money to pay off the lien, possibly because a Texas-based congregation, the Westover Hills Church of Christ, is still listed as trustee of the Brown Church. According to Davis, while the Westover Hills church helped the Antrim Church of Christ purchase the Brown Church, there are no longer any financial ties between the two churches.
“We were very honest about who the players were. Maybe people thought the Antrim church had money, or maybe they thought the Texas church had money and they would pay the lien, but that is not the case,” Davis said. “There were restrictions on what could be done with the church, which the former minister had put in place when we purchased it.”
Davis said at the time the lien was discovered, the former Antrim Church of Christ had $7,000 left in their coffers.
“We had $7,000. That’s it. We were going to donate it to a Christian camp, but we used it to put toward the tax lien. The church was willing to give whatever we had left to the town, asked them to forgive the taxes and let them transfer the building. We just had a heart and will to see that the Historical Society ended up with the building,” Davis said. “We never gave up on realizing this vision of that building and how it could be used for the community. We prayed on it for years.”
ACB steps in, town agrees to settlement
In February 2025, the Antrim Community Board voted that their primary goal for the year would be to assist in the transfer of the Brown Church to AHS. Davis, the board of AHS, and members of the Antrim Community Board put their heads together to try to figure out how to get the church into the hands of the Historical Society.
In spring 2025, Allen proposed a land swap with the town, offering a parcel of his own land in exchange for the Brown Church. The board was open to the proposal, with Select Board chair Mike Ott stating that it “would be a really good idea if the numbers worked out.”
“A land swap makes sense: it is land we want for land we don’t want. The town does not want the church, and removing it from the tax rolls is a good idea….I agree that most residents in town would like to see the church go to AHS,” Ott stated in April 2025.
Despite the town’s willingness to explore the land swap, Allen’s offer, which included a proposal for workforce housing, was ultimately unworkable.
By summer of 2025, the tax lien on the church had increased to over $75,000. By that fall, the town was taking steps to auction off the church in order to pay off the lien and bring in revenue for the town. But in November, Allen approached the town with another offer: donors secured by the ACB would pay off the remaining amount originally owed by the church, minus the $7,000 which would be paid by Church of Christ.
The town agreed to the settlement, with Select Board members Mike Ott and John Robertson voting in favor, and Bob Edwards voting against it. The deed of the church was then returned to Davis and the other trustees.
“Once the church had the deed, they were able to go ahead and donate it to the Historical Society. A condition of the settlement with the town was that once the church had the deed, they would quickly turn it over to us,” Nichols said.
Mike Ott, chair of the Antrim Select Board, gave a statement on Tuesday, April 7.
“The Select Board is delighted to have been able to find an amicable solution for the disposition of the Brown Church. It was a slow and at times uncomfortable process to find a path forward that balanced the town’s and Select Board’s desire to see the church go to the care of the Antrim Historical Society, with the Board’s fiscal responsibilities to the residents and taxpayers. We are excited to see the restoration and revitalization AHS will bring to such an important, beautiful, and historical property on Main Street,” Ott said on behalf of the Select Board.
Davis said he regrets the time lost in the process.
“It’s sad that it took us two-and-a-half years to get this figured out. The raccoons have done tremendous damage to the building in the meantime. But the Historical Society has a great attitude, they will make it into a wonderful place, and we are helping them get it cleaned up,” Davis said. “We have been working very hard with the town to get all the legal issues straightened away, and we’re just grateful it has all been resolved.”
Nichols said it was frustrating driving by the church every day for the past two-and-a-half years, knowing it was decaying further.
“If we could have gotten a new roof on the church three years ago, it would be in a lot better shape. But we’re grateful that it all finally worked out,” he said.
Allen said the ACB board is very happy that the church finally belongs to AHS.
“We wish we could have gotten in there sooner and prevented the damage that happened in the last few years, but we’re very happy the situation has been resolved and that we are moving ahead,” Allen said. “This will be a wonderful thing for Antrim, and we’re all celebrating.”
What comes next
The Antrim Historical Society plans to completely restore the building for use as a community center, a museum, and storage archives. The group also hopes to use the building for concerts, theater, and other community events.
“The acoustics in the building are phenomenal,” Nichols said.
The Antrim Historical Society, which has been located on the third floor of Antrim’s Tuttle Library since around 1900, has already begun the process of making needed repairs to the property and preventing further decay, starting with a new roof.
Jenine Rubin made a statement on behalf of the Trustees of Tuttle Library.
“The Library Trustees are very excited about this opportunity for AHS and for the community at large. We are looking forward to AHS having their own space where they can stretch out and display more of these amazing collection. When the time comes, the library will expand into the space currently occupied by AHS in order to continue their great services to Antrim,” she said.
Nichols said AHS is overjoyed for the library.
“We know they will be very happy to get their third floor back,” he said.
