Elias Carter


Elias Carter was an American architect whose first church design, at Brimfield, Massachusetts, was completed in 1805. He was born in 1781 to Timothy and Sarah Carter in Ward, a village of Auburn, Massachusetts. His father, a builder, died when he was three, and the family moved to Hardwick when his mother remarried, to a farmer there. He followed in his father's profession, working in the American South for a time before returning to central Massachusetts. He was responsible for the construction of a number of churches in central Massachusetts, which an early biographer described as "typical white steepled churches of New England". His most influential design appears to have been the church in Templeton, Massachusetts, which inspired the design of at least two others. He also built houses throughout central Massachusetts, as well as a wing of the Westborough State Hospital, and played a role in the construction of the New Hampshire state insane asylum.
Many of his works are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Works include: