Despite its Puritan pedigree, Bristol was no stern Calvinist enclave; when Congregationalists elsewhere favored more sober German Romanesque models, in Bristol they chose a Gothic Revival design with “a pleasing variety in figure and color.” Anchored by its corner tower, the church forms an irregular composition, its walls of random ashlar offset by crisp granite trim. These details and the simple lancet windows recall the first phase of the American Gothic Revival, which preferred the picturesque to the scholarly. The architect was Seth H. Ingalls of New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 1869 the DeWolf Memorial Chapel was added, commemorating the church's most generous supporters.