Amesbury Friends Meeting House | |
Location | 120 Friend St., Amesbury, Massachusetts |
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Coordinates | 42°51′18″N70°56′19″W / 42.85500°N 70.93861°W |
Built | 1850 |
Architect | Thomas W. Thorndike |
Architectural style | Greek Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 02000376 [1] |
Added to NRHP | April 18, 2002 |
The Amesbury Friends Meetinghouse is a Friends Meeting House at 120 Friend Street in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Built in 1850 under the guidance of John Greenleaf Whittier, it is home to one of the leading Quaker congregations of the region, and historically hosted quarterly meetings for Quakers from across eastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire. The meetinghouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. [1]
The Amesbury Friends Meetinghouse is located west of downtown Amesbury, on the south side of Friend Street, at the southwest corner of its junction with Greenleaf Street. It is a simple 1+1⁄2-story wood-frame building, with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. The main facade is three bays wide, with sash windows flanking a center entrance, and a smaller window in the gable above. The building sides each have three windows. The interior has a vestibule spanning the building width, leading to the main chamber, with a gallery above. The main chamber has movable partitions, which can be raised and lowered by means of pulleys. These facilitate both the conduct of services by the entire congregation, and the conduct of business meetings, which were historically segregated by sex. [2]
The Amesbury congregation of the Society of Friends is the oldest in northeastern Massachusetts, dating to 1657. Initially meeting in what is now southern New Hampshire to avoid persecution by the Puritan authorities of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, they built their first meeting house in 1705. The present building is their fourth, and was completed in 1851. The poet John Greenleaf Whittier, a member of long standing in the congregation and by then already well known, was a leading force on the building committee. The building's comparatively large size is a reflection of the congregation's importance as a host of the regional quarterly meetings. [2] From 1851 to 1962, the meetinghouse hosted the Salem Quarterly meeting. The Amesbury Monthly Meeting of Friends is a current thriving congregation, with Meeting for Worship every Sunday at 10 AM. The facing bench displays a small plaque that reads, "Whittier's Bench."
John Greenleaf Whittier was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Frequently listed as one of the fireside poets, he was influenced by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Whittier is remembered particularly for his anti-slavery writings, as well as his 1866 book Snow-Bound.
The John Greenleaf Whittier Home is a historic house located at 86 Friend Street, Amesbury, Massachusetts. It was the home of American poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier from 1836 until his death in 1892, and is now a nonprofit museum open to the public May 1 through October 31; an admission fee is charged. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.
The Macy–Colby House is a historically significant saltbox house at 257 Main Street in Amesbury, Massachusetts. It is a historic house museum and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2008. In addition to its great age, it is notable for its association with Thomas Macy, an early settler of Nantucket and the subject of a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier, and for its long association with the locally significant Colby family.
The John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead is the birthplace and home of American Quaker poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier. It currently serves as a museum. The homestead is located at 305 Whittier Road in Haverhill, Massachusetts.
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The Arch Street Meeting House, at 320 Arch Street at the corner of 4th Street in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a Meeting House of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Built to reflect Friends' testimonies of simplicity and equality, this building is little changed after more than two centuries of continuous use.
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The Second Rindge Meetinghouse, Horsesheds and Cemetery is a historic meeting house and cemetery on Old US 202 and Rindge Common in Rindge, New Hampshire. Built in 1796, it is relatively distinctive in New England as one of few such meeting houses where both civic and religious functions are still accommodated, housing both the town offices and a church congregation. The town's first cemetery, established in 1764, lies to the north of the meetinghouse. It is the resting place of many of Rindge's early settlers, and of its American Revolutionary War veterans. Behind the meetinghouse stand a row of horse sheds, the only one of the two rows of them which originally served the meetinghouse. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The Dover Religious Society of Friends Meetinghouse is a historic Quaker meeting house at 141 Central Avenue in Dover, Strafford County, New Hampshire. Built in 1768 for a congregation established in the 17th century, it is the only surviving 18th-century Quaker meetinghouse in the state. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The Nine Partners Meeting House and Cemetery is located at the junction of NY state highway 343 and Church Street, in the village of Millbrook, New York, United States. The meeting house, the third one on the site, was built by a group of Friends ("Quakers") from the Cape Cod region, Nantucket and Rhode Island in 1780.
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The North Sandwich Meeting House is a historic Quaker meeting house at the northwest junction of Quaker-Whiteface Road and Brown Hill Road in Sandwich, New Hampshire. Built in 1881, it is the best-preserved 19th-century Quaker meeting house in the county. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, at which time it was the only active Quaker meeting house in Carroll County.
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Elizabeth Hussey Whittier was an American poet and abolitionist, who founded the Female Anti-Slavery Society in Boston in 1833. Alongside her mother, she is credited with encouraging her brother John Greenleaf Whittier's interests in literature and poetry, and was his close companion and collaborator until her death.
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