Rocky Hill Meeting House

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Rocky Hill Meetinghouse and Parsonage
Rocky Hill Meeting House - Amesbury, Massachusetts.JPG
Rocky Hill Meeting House, Amesbury, Massachusetts.
LocationOld Portsmouth Rd.
Amesbury, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°51′2″N70°54′39″W / 42.85056°N 70.91083°W / 42.85056; -70.91083 Coordinates: 42°51′2″N70°54′39″W / 42.85056°N 70.91083°W / 42.85056; -70.91083
Builtc. 1785
Architectural styleGeorgian
NRHP reference # 72000115 [1]
Added to NRHPApril 11, 1972

The Rocky Hill Meeting House is a well-preserved New England meeting house located on Old Portsmouth Road in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Built about 1785, and not used as a church after 1840, it has the best-preserved example of an original 18th-century meeting house interior in New England. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. [1] It is now a museum property owned and operated by Historic New England. It is open selected days each year; admission is charged.

New England Region of the United States

New England is a region composed of six states in the northeastern United States: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick to the northeast and Quebec to the north. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the south. Boston is New England's largest city, as well as the capital of Massachusetts. The largest metropolitan area is Greater Boston with nearly a third of the entire region's population, which also includes Worcester, Massachusetts, Manchester, New Hampshire, and Providence, Rhode Island.

Colonial meeting house

A colonial meeting house was a meeting house used in colonial New England built using tax money. The colonial meeting house was the focal point of the community where all the town's residents could discuss local issues, conduct religious worship, and engage in town business.

Amesbury, Massachusetts City in Massachusetts, United States

Amesbury is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the left bank of the Merrimack River near its mouth, upstream from Salisbury and across the river from Newburyport and West Newbury. The population was 16,283 at the 2010 census. A former farming and mill town, Amesbury is today largely residential. It is one of the two northernmost towns in Massachusetts.

Contents

Description and history

The Rocky Hill Meeting House is located east of downtown Amesbury, on Old Portsmouth Road, now a short spur between Elm Street and Interstate 495. It is a roughly square 2-1/2 story timber frame structure, with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. Each side is five bays wide, with entrances on three sides. The principal entrance is on the south side, in a projecting two-story stairhouse. The interior consists of a single large chamber with a second-floor gallery on three sides. It lacks the modern amenities of electricity, plumbing, and heat.

The meeting house was built to serve the west parish of Salisbury in approximately 1785, replacing a c. 1715 meeting house. George Washington greeted local townspeople in this meeting house on his northward journey in 1789. By the 1840s, regular religious services had come to an end. Historic New England acquired the meeting house in 1941. [2]

George Washington 1st president of the United States

George Washington was an American political leader, military general, statesman, and Founding Father who also served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. He led Patriot forces to victory in the nation's War for Independence. He presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 which established the U.S. Constitution and a federal government. Washington has been called the "Father of His Country" for his manifold leadership in the formative days of the new nation.

Historic New England non-profit organisation in the USA

Historic New England, previously known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), is a charitable, non-profit, historic preservation organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is focused on New England and is the oldest and largest regional preservation organization in the United States. Historic New England owns and operates historic site museums and study properties throughout all of the New England states except Vermont, and serves more than 198,000 visitors and program participants each year. Approximately 48,000 visitors participate in school and youth programs focused on New England heritage.

Its interior has remained virtually unchanged since it was constructed, with the original high pulpit, pentagonal sounding board, deacon's desk, marbleized columns, box pews (complete with graffiti and foot warmers), unfinished stairs to the gallery, and sloping gallery on three sides. The pews have never been painted, the marbleized pulpit and pillars supporting the galleries still feature their original paint, and the building still contains its original hardware.

See also

National Register of Historic Places listings in Essex County, Massachusetts Wikimedia list article

This list is of that portion of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) designated in Essex County, Massachusetts. The locations of these properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may be seen in a map.

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References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2008-04-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. "Rocky Hill Meeting House". Historic New England. Retrieved 2014-01-10.