Amawalk Friends Meeting House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Amawalk Friends Meeting House
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South and east elevations, 2013
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 Location in New York
Location in the United States
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| Location | Yorktown Heights, New York |
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| Nearest city | Peekskill |
| Area | 2.9 acres (1.2 ha) |
| Built | 1831 |
| NRHP reference No. | 89002004 |
| Added to NRHP | November 16, 1989 |
The Amawalk Friends Meeting House is a historic building in Yorktown Heights, New York. It was built in the 1830s using a special wood frame style called timber framing. In 1989, this meeting house and its old cemetery became part of the National Register of Historic Places.
Quakers have been active in this part of Westchester County since the mid-1700s. The Amawalk Meeting House is the third one they built here. The first two were destroyed by fire. This building is special because it's one of the best-preserved Quaker meeting houses in the area. It's also rare because it was built by a group of Quakers called "Hicksites" during a time when Quakers were divided.
The building's design is also unique for a Quaker meeting house. It shows some influences from the Greek Revival style, which was popular at the time. Later, a porch was added, giving it some Victorian touches. Even though the inside has been updated, many of its original features are still there.
The property also includes a large cemetery. Many early Quaker members are buried there. Interestingly, Robert Capa, a famous war photographer, and his brother Cornell Capa are also buried here, even though they were not Quakers. Their gravestones show the simple style of Quaker burials.
Contents
Exploring the Meeting House and Grounds
The Amawalk Friends Meeting House sits on a 2.9-acre (1.2 ha) piece of land. It's located on the west side of Quaker Church Road. This road also marks the border between the towns of Yorktown and Somers. The area used to be a small village called Amawalk. The name is still used for the meeting house and the nearby Amawalk Reservoir. This reservoir is an important part of the New York City water supply system.
The land around the meeting house has small hills and valleys. These valleys often have creeks or wetlands. The meeting house property slopes up to the west. It drains into a small stream that flows into the Muscoot River. The neighborhood is mostly residential, with large, wooded lots.
Across Quaker Church Road are two houses. Behind them is a path used for power lines. This path is also followed by the North County Trailway, a popular rail trail. To the west of the meeting house is Amawalk Hill Cemetery. Another cemetery, Carpenter Hill, is to the north.
The Meeting House Building
A short gravel driveway leads from the road to the property. Old oak and maple trees shade the area. The meeting house is on the north side of the parking lot. It's a two-and-a-half-story rectangular building made of wood. It measures 30 by 40 feet (9.1 by 12.2 m). The outside walls are mostly covered with wooden shingles. A small section of clapboard siding is just below the roof. The building sits on a fieldstone foundation. A single brick chimney rises from the center of the slate roof.
A porch with a hip roof runs along the front (south side) of the first floor. On the west side, there's a small, one-story addition covered in clapboard.
The meeting house has two separate entrances on the front. These doors are made of paneled wood. The windows are tall, with six small panes on the top and six on the bottom. They have plain wooden frames and paneled wooden shutters. The east side of the building has similar windows with shutters. The west addition and the north side have similar windows, but without shutters.
The porch has a low concrete floor. In the middle, there are three simple wooden benches. They are arranged in a square, facing outwards. At the west end of the porch, a wooden door leads into the small addition. The porch roof is held up by seven square wooden pillars. These pillars have curved brackets at the top. The roof also has decorative molding.
On the second floor, all the windows have two panes on top and two on the bottom. They have plain wooden frames and no shutters. A smaller window is in the pointed part of both gable roofs, at the attic level. On the south side, decorative brackets support a molded edge, similar to the porch.
Inside the Meeting House
Both front entrances open into the main meeting room. Inside, you'll find cushioned wooden benches. Some benches, meant for the meeting's elders, are fixed in place on three rising steps. Other benches can be moved around. Two small, foldable tables are at the ends of the elders' bench. These were used for taking notes during meetings. In the middle of the room are two small wood-burning stoves. One of these stoves is from the late 1800s. The building does not have modern heating, plumbing, or electricity.
The floor of the room is covered in linoleum. On the plain plaster walls, you can still see where a wall once divided the room. This wall separated men and women during business meetings. The frame of a door that used to be in that wall is also visible. A door in the west wall leads to the addition. This addition serves as a cloakroom and restroom. Inside, you can see the meeting house's original hand-cut wooden beams.
Several wooden pillars support a wooden balcony. Some pillars still have original kerosene lamps attached. You can reach the balcony by stairs in the southern corners. It is about 8.5 feet (2.6 m) above the main floor. The balcony is 9 feet (2.7 m) deep on the south side and 7 feet (2.1 m) deep on the east and west sides. The south section has loose benches, while the other sections have fixed ones. A ladder on the east side leads to the full-length attic. In the attic, just like in the cloakroom, you can see the building's strong wooden beams.
First Day School and Cemetery
On the south side of the parking lot is the First Day School building. It's a smaller building with a pointed roof. It's made of wood and has the same siding and colors as the meeting house. This building was constructed in the 1970s where the meeting's stable used to be. Because it's newer, it's not considered a "contributing resource" to the property's original historic look.
The cemetery, however, is considered a contributing historic site. It rises up the hillside to the west. Some of its graves are very old and covered with plants. The graves date from the late 1700s, when the meeting first started, up to today. The oldest grave with a clear name is that of Eugent Weeks, who died in 1805. Early grave markers are made of sandstone. Later ones are made of marble.
Many of the headstones show the Quaker value of simplicity. They don't have much funerary art. Some on the southwest corner have a weeping willow design. Most simply list the person's name, their relationship to others nearby, and their birth and death dates. These details face away from the meeting house. Some graves don't have any markers at all.
A Look Back: History of Amawalk Meeting House
The Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, started in the mid-1600s. They faced challenges in England because of their beliefs. They were called English Dissenters because they didn't believe in having a church hierarchy or paid clergy. Many Quakers moved to the American colonies to find more freedom. Even though their numbers grew, they didn't feel completely safe meeting openly until the mid-1700s.
Starting the Amawalk Meeting (1760–1797)
As Quakers gained more acceptance, their meetings grew. Northern Westchester County became a busy area for this growth. The Amawalk meeting likely began around 1760. In 1766, records show that the "Cortlands Manor" meeting had been active for at least a year.
As the group grew, the Amawalk meeting asked for permission to build its first meeting house. This was in 1772, on the same spot where the current building stands. It was finished in 1773. Five years later, in 1779, the first meeting house was damaged by fire. Repairs weren't done until 1783. By then, the meeting had already decided to build a new house. This second meeting house was finished in 1785. It was described as being similar in size to the building we see today.
While the new house was being built, the Amawalk Quakers met in Chappaqua. The meeting also started educating its children. In 1791, they opened a school. However, they had to close it two years later because they couldn't find enough qualified teachers. Instead, in 1796, they decided to support a boarding school being planned by another Quaker group in Dutchess County.
The Amawalk meeting also worked for social change. In 1783, a member who bought a slave to set him free asked the meeting if this was the right thing to do. The next month, they decided it was not. However, the Amawalk meeting strongly supported the growing abolitionist movement among American Quakers. By the next year, they reported that none of their members owned slaves.
Growth and a Big Change (1798–1839)
In 1798, Amawalk finally became its own Monthly Meeting. With the newer, larger meeting house, more members joined. By 1828, Amawalk was overseeing five smaller meetings.
That same year, a big division happened among American Quakers. This was partly due to a religious movement called the Second Great Awakening. Some Quaker meetings started to adopt practices similar to other Christian groups, like adding hymns and prayers. But Elias Hicks, a Quaker from Long Island, disagreed. He believed in the "inner light" as the main way to connect with God. He even thought it was more important than the Bible. Many Quaker groups had to choose a side. The Amawalk Quakers chose to follow Hicks. The other group, called "Orthodox" Quakers, left to build their own meeting house in 1832. That building no longer exists.
Near the end of 1830, the Amawalk meeting house burned down completely. The very next year, in 1831, the current meeting house was built. Its construction cost a bit more than planned, about $1,250.
This meeting house is special for two reasons. First, it's rare because it was built by a Hicksite meeting. Usually, the Orthodox groups were the ones who left and built new places. Second, its design shows some influence from the Greek Revival style. This is seen in the clapboard siding below the roof on the front. Quaker meeting houses usually avoided popular architectural styles. They preferred a very simple look. Originally, the meeting house had a wall inside to separate men's and women's business meetings. This is also why there are two entrances.
By the mid-1830s, the meeting had 74 families as members. Some members left or were removed for various reasons, like alcohol use or marrying non-Quakers. But new members joined from other areas. The group continued its activism. In 1839, one member was even jailed for 16 days because he refused to pay a "military demand" of $5.
Challenges and Changes (1840–1903)
Membership started to drop in the 1840s. This was partly because of the Quaker division and changes in society. Around this time, a small shed addition was built on the west side of the meeting house. It was used as a cloakroom and restroom. There's a belief that the building was a stop on the Underground Railroad during this time, but this has never been proven.
The American Civil War, fought over slavery, tested the beliefs of all Quakers, including those at Amawalk. Near the end of the war in 1865, the meeting's records noted that members had not always followed their belief against war. Some members paid others to fight for them in the Union Army, and at least one joined the army himself.
After the Civil War, the meeting continued to decline. In 1869, the Quaker Society stopped telling its members not to hold public office. The Amawalk meeting also added some comforts. In 1883, they bought two wood-burning stoves to heat the building in colder weather. One of these stoves is still there. Another addition in the 1800s was the porch. Its curved brackets show a Victorian style. This was unusual for Quaker meeting houses, which usually stayed very plain.
Members remained active in social and political issues. In 1882, they wrote to the New York State Legislature to support prohibition. They also urged the state to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment. But these efforts weren't enough to stop the decline in members. By the end of 1886, Amawalk had only 96 members. In 1897, Amawalk became an executive meeting, and in 1903, it became an official organization.
Famous Burial and Closure (1904–1976)
Meetings continued, but not regularly, as membership kept falling. In 1920, Hicksite and Orthodox Quakers began to work towards coming back together. This process took almost 50 years.
Ten years later, in 1930, the carpet inside the meeting house was replaced with linoleum. The Amawalk meeting remained active, focusing on supportive activities. They collected books for Faith Cabin Libraries that served African-American communities. During World War II, they made patchwork quilts to send overseas. After the war, they sponsored two young women from Hiroshima, Japan, who came to the United States for plastic surgery after their injuries.
In 1954, war photographer Robert Capa died in Vietnam. He stepped on a land mine while covering the First Indochina War. Capa was famous for his powerful photos of the Normandy landings during World War II. John Morris, Capa's editor, felt that a Quaker funeral would be a good way to honor Capa. Even though Capa was not a Quaker, he believed Capa promoted peace by showing the terrible reality of war. Morris arranged for a Quaker service at Amawalk. At the service, Capa's brother Cornell Capa said a Jewish prayer.
The few remaining members of the Amawalk meeting allowed Capa to be buried in their cemetery. Later, his mother and sister-in-law were buried in the same plot. In 2008, Cornell Capa, who had started the International Center for Photography, was also buried next to his brother. None of them were Quakers.
Ten years later, in 1964, the meeting no longer had enough members to continue. It was officially closed. The building was left empty and started to show signs of neglect.
New Beginnings (1977–Present)
Four years after Amawalk closed, the Hicksite and Orthodox Quakers fully reunited in 1977. This, along with a renewed interest in spiritual journeys, helped bring new life to the Society. Meetings started again at Amawalk in 1977. Soon after, a window was added to the south side of the cloakroom. This was the most recent change to the meeting house's outside.
The new members made fixing up the property a priority. The First Day School building was completed in 1987. It had modern features and was built where a horse stable used to be. During the week, a local nursery school used the building. That same year, Amawalk had enough members to become a monthly meeting again.
In 1993, four years after the property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the meeting received a $50,000 grant from the state. This money was for renovating the inside of the building. The interior had been damaged by insects and water over the years. The meeting raised its half of the money through an auction of historic photos. This auction was organized by Cornell Capa.
See also
- List of Quaker meeting houses
- National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Westchester County, New York
