Elias Carter was an American architect whose first church design, at Brimfield, was completed in 1805.
Background
He was born in 1781 to Timothy and Sarah (Walker) 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.
Career
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.
Works (attribution) include:
Barre Common District, bounded roughly by South, Exchange, Main, Pleasant, Broad, School and Grove Saints, Barre, Master of Arts, NRHP-listed
Domingos House, 1261 Jefferson Territory, Macon, Georgia, NRHP-listed
Dowley-Taylor House, 770 Main Saint, Worcester, Master of Arts, NRHP-listed
Government.
Levi Lincoln House, 4 Avalon Place, Worcester, Master of Arts, NRHP-listed
One or more works in Rabbit Hill Historic District, roughly bounded by Highland, Main, Franklin, and Milford Saints, Medway, Master of Arts, NRHP-listed
Salisbury House, 61 Harvard Saint, Worcester, Master of Arts, NRHP-listed
Small House, 156 Rogers Avenue., Macon, Georgia, NRHP-listed
Templeton Common Historic District, Athol, Gardner, Hubbardston, Dudley, Wellington, and South Rds., Templeton, Master of Arts, NRHP-listed
Third Fitzwilliam Meetinghouse, Village Green, Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, NRHP-listed
Horatio Tower House, 71 Pleasant Saint, Worcester, Master of Arts, NRHP-listed
One or more works in Brimfield Center Historic District, Main Saint, Brookfield, Wales, Sturbridge and Warren Rds., Brimfield, Master of Arts, NRHP-listed
One or more works in Mendon Center Historic District, roughly bounded by Main, Hastings, Maple, North, Washington & George Saints, Mendon, Master of Arts, NRHP-listed
Westborough State Hospital, along Lyman Saint north of Chauncy Lake and jct. of South Saint and Master of Arts 9, Westborough, Master of Arts (Carter, Elias), NRHP-listed.