Sashabaw Presbyterian Church

The Sashabaw Church is architecturally significant as a well-preserved example of Greek Revival ecclesiastical design. It is also historically significant for its long history as a Presbyterian Church serving Independence Township. The congregation was first organized in 1840 as a Congregational Society by the settlers in what has always been known as Sashabaw Plains. By 1856 when the present structure was constructed as the congregation's first permanent home, the members had adopted the Presbyterian form of worship. The building was erected at a cost of about $3,000 by a firm of master carpenters, Pratt and Tuttle, from Pontiac. The site chosen for the new church was a lot across from the house. The present school stands as a successor to their one-room school established in 1834. The church was sited just to the east of the already existing Sashabaw Cemetery which had been established about 1836. The church flourished through the nineteenth century. The agricultural decline that affected Oakland county in the early twentieth century, however, took its toll on rural institutions such as the Sashabaw Presbyterian Church. By 1932 the church had closed. In 1946, the reorganized Sashabaw Community Church took over the structure. Within a short time the old name of Sashabaw United Presbyterian Church had been resumed. As Oakland county became increasingly suburbanized, the congregation grew and prospered. In 1956 the old church was given its first major renovation in decades. In 1958 the present steeple was erected. In 1965 the property received a State Historical marker. In the early 1970s, the greatly expanded congregation built a new complex at a nearby site. In recent years the old church has been used by the congregation for various purposes and is now occasionally used for meetings.

The Sashabaw United Presbyterian Church is located on Maybee Road in rural Independence Township in the northern part of Oakland county near the village of Clarkston. The surrounding farmland is being developed with suburban housing. Adjacent to the church to the west is the old Sashabaw cemetery which predates the church. A modern elementary school is located to the east. The church building is a classic Greek Revival style country church built in 1856. It is a one-story end-gable-roofed, rectangular, white painted clapboarded structure with a plain entablature, and a double door central entrance in the gable end flanked by full height sixteen-over-sixteen sash windows. The side walls each contain three bays of large windows identical to those on the facade. Above the flush-boarded pediment is a small modern steeple and spire built in 1958 to replace an earlier, more elaborate belfry which had been destroyed. The one-story lean-to addition to the rear was added in 1952. The interior consists of a single large hall with simple window casings and plastered walls and a plastered ceiling now covered with a suspended, acoustical tile ceiling. The gallery at the rear of the church hall, which is reached by a narrow, enclosed stairway from the small vestibule, is faced with a paneled parapet railing. The woodwork, including the six-panel doors and the paneled wainscoting in the raised sanctuary area, and the plain vertical board wainscoting in the church and vestibule is painted and grained. The church still contains its fine six-light metal kerosene chandelier (now converted to electricity) as well as two supplementary single kerosene lamps.