Founders Hall (Pittsfield, Maine)

Founders Hall is the centerpiece of the campus of the Maine Central Institute, located on the west side of Main Street in Pittsfield, Maine. It is a three-story brick structure, with a hip roof and a granite foundation. The cornice line below the roof is decorated with modillions. The hip roof is flattened at the center, and is topped by an open octagonal belfry with a bellcast roof. The front facade has a central projecting section, with quoined corners and single-story porches on either side that shelter its entrances. The upper windows on the projection are tall composites with round-arch elements. Fenestration elsewhere consists of segmented-arch sashes on the first level, and round-arch windows above.^[2]

The Maine Central Institute was founded in 1866 by Free Will Baptists as a private academy intended to supply students to Bates College.^[3] Construction of this, its first building, taking place over a ten-year period beginning in 1868.^[2] The building now houses, in addition to classrooms, offices and a ballet studio, as well as the school's rifle range in its basement.^[3]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Somerset County, Maine