Friends Meetinghouse (Uxbridge, Massachusetts)

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Friends Meetinghouse
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Friends Meetinghouse (Uxbridge, Massachusetts) (Massachusetts)
Friends Meetinghouse (Uxbridge, Massachusetts)
Nearest city: Uxbridge, Massachusetts
Coordinates: 42°2′21″N 71°37′16″W / 42.03917, -71.62111Coordinates: 42°2′21″N 71°37′16″W / 42.03917, -71.62111
Built/Founded: 1770
Architect: Unknown
Architectural style(s): No Style Listed
Added to NRHP: January 24, 1974
NRHP Reference#: 74000395

[1]
Governing body: Private

The Friends Meetinghouse is an historic religious building located at the junction of Routes 146A (Quaker Highway) and 98 (Aldrich Street) in Uxbridge, Massachusetts. On January 24, 1974, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Contents

[edit] History

The Friends Meeting House is one of the last crude brick church structures remaining in America. This building is on the National Registry of Historic Buildings. The Friends Meeting House was built in Uxbridge, Massachusetts in 1770, by Quakers from the Quaker Community in Smithfield, Rhode Island. [2] It was built on the farm of Moses Farnum. It was built with bricks made from a brickyard across the street. [2] There were separate entrances for men and women. [2] The structure is two stories and has a balcony.

The NPS, National Park Service Website describes this site as the following: “Uxbridge vicinity. FRIENDS MEETINGHOUSE, S of Uxbridge on MA 146, 1770-1776. Brick, 2 stories, rectangular gabled roof, 2 interior chimneys; 2-story gabled entrance vestibule, early-19th C.; simple interior, 2nd-floor gallery; interior alterations, early- 19th C. Two reconstructed outbuildings, cemetery. Typical of Quaker meetinghouse in New England. Private”[3]

Quakers from Rhode Island maintain this building. There are Quaker services monthly at the building. This historic church was the church home for fiery Abolitionist, Abby Kelley Foster.[4] She was an ulta-abolitionist who led Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone into the abolition movement. She was later disowned by the Uxbridge Meeting for radical abolition speeches.

The earliest Quakers who settled here from Smithfield and Providence, RI, were among the first in America who personally renounced slavery and freed slaves. There are a number of Quaker homes built in this area, which was known as Quaker City, Aldrich Village, and the village of Ironstone, Massachusetts.

An almshouse cemetery nearby was relocated with the Route 146 construction between 1981-1984 and resulted in historic archeology findings published by University of Florida researchers.[5]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).
  2. ^ a b c "Walking tours - Uxbridge". Blackstone Daily. Retrieved on 2007-09-23.
  3. ^ ”Report: NPS Uxbridge Vicinity, Friends Meetinghouse”; publisher=NPS.gov.
  4. ^ Uxbridge, Friends Meetinghouse. NPS. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  5. ^ ”“The Historical Archaeology of Mortuary Behavior: Coffin Hardware from Uxbridge, Massachusetts; Abstract: Edward Bell”. University of Florida (1992). Retrieved on 2007-11-01.

[edit] External links


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