Shiloh Chapel, formerly known as Shiloh Temple, is in Durham, Maine. It was built in 1897 on property that overlooks the Androscoggin River. Originally intended as a bible school, the property soon became infamous as the base for a religious sect led by Frank W. Sandford, known as The Holy Ghost and Us Society, founded a few years earlier in 1894. Frank Sandford was an ordained Baptist minister looking for property to start a bible school in Durham, where he had been preaching for several years. A man named John Douglas gave Sandford a piece of land – a barren sand hill – which was located behind his farm. In March 1896, Sandford and a few men started building Shiloh Temple. By the end of that year, the Jerusalem Tower was completed – a 27-room building with a 7-story tower. As more followers and their money and possessions came to Durham to join the Society, the actual property grew as well. A quadrangle of buildings was eventually built, with the Jerusalem Tower at the head and David’s Tower across from it. David’s Tower was 260 feet long, 40 feet wide, and three stories high. It was claimed to be the largest bible school building in the world. The quadrangle had over 500 rooms and space for 1,000 people. There were other buildings on the Temple campus, including Bethesda (a faith healing hospital built in 1898) and Olivet (a children’s building built in 1903). In addition to the Temple and its array of buildings, the massive following that the sect garnered created its own town on the Shiloh “complex,” which had its own print shop, cobbler, blacksmiths, post office, bakery, school, livestock, and other essentials used to support the Shiloh followers. The movement owned 1,470 acres of land and contributed substantially to Durham’s taxes. There were rumors of controversy and mistreatment of the followers. Still, no action was taken against the sect until Frank Sandford was arrested for manslaughter in 1904 and again in 1911 – the Temple ran under his direction during his prison stay. Sandford was released in 1918, but the Temple was eventually shut down in 1920, and Sandford moved to New York. All of the buildings, except the Jerusalem Tower, were torn down in the 1950s. Shiloh Chapel, as it is now called, still operates as a religious facility.
The Ghastly Historian 
