Cornwall Friends Meeting House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Cornwall Friends Meeting House
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South (front) elevation and west profile of meeting house in 2007
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| Location | Cornwall, NY |
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| Nearest city | Newburgh |
| Area | 5.4 acres (2.2 ha) |
| Built | 1790 |
| NRHP reference No. | 88002751 |
| Added to NRHP | 1988 |
The Cornwall Friends Meeting House is a very old building in Cornwall, New York. It is located where Quaker Avenue meets US 9W. This building is special because it is the oldest religious building in Cornwall. It was also the first one ever built there.
In 1988, the meeting house was added to the National Register of Historic Places. This is a list of important places in the United States that are worth protecting. The building is a great example of a Quaker meeting house from the late 1700s. It has not changed much since it was built.
The meeting house was built in 1790. It was designed like other Quaker meeting houses from that time. David Sands-Ring helped pay for the building. He was a local person who joined the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers. At first, this meeting house was part of a larger Quaker group called Nine Partners. Later, it became its own independent group.
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What is a Quaker Meeting House?
A Quaker meeting house is a place where members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) gather for worship and meetings. Unlike many churches, Quaker meeting houses often have a simple design. They usually do not have altars or pulpits. This simple style helps Quakers focus on their quiet worship.
The Meeting House Property
The Cornwall Friends Meeting House property includes three main parts. These are the meeting house itself, a carriage house, and a cemetery. All three parts are important to the history of the site.
The Meeting House Building
The meeting house is a two-and-a-half-story building. It is made of white clapboard wood. Tall oak trees surround it, and it sits a little way back from the street. There is a porch on the front, with separate doors at each end.
Inside, the main floor has two rooms of the same size. A special wall can be moved to separate or join these rooms. This was a common feature in Quaker meeting houses back then. The west room is used for worship. It has simple white benches along the walls. A Bible sits on a small table in the middle. The benches on the north wall are a bit higher for the elders (leaders).
The east room is used for other meetings and social events. It has a piano, tables, chairs, and a library of Quaker books. Two original staircases lead to the upper floor. This floor used to be a gallery looking down into the rooms below. Most of the original parts of the building are still there. A small wing on the northeast side has a kitchen and two bathrooms.
The Carriage House
To the east of the meeting house is the carriage house. This building was used to store carriages and wagons. It is an open-front shed with five sections. It was built using strong wooden posts and beams held together with wooden pins. You can still see marks on the wood from horses that chewed on it long ago. There are also old carvings from children, like "GTC: 1877."
The Cemetery
The cemetery is located to the northwest of the meeting house. It has graves that date back to 1799. Not everyone buried here was a Quaker. This cemetery was open to everyone in Cornwall at the time. It was the only cemetery in the area for a while.
The oldest gravestones are made of sandstone. Later ones are made of marble. Quaker graves are very simple, without fancy carvings. This shows their belief in simplicity. However, there are three older gravestones for children that have flower carvings. Some early 1900s granite stones are also present. The cemetery is still used today for burials.
History of the Cornwall Quakers
The Quaker community in Cornwall started with David Sands-Ring. His family came from England and settled in the area. When David was 14, in 1759, he became interested in the local Quakers. Their beliefs were similar to his own. He started going to meetings with Edward Hallock, another person from Long Island. They went to the Nine Partners Meeting House across the river.
David Sands-Ring eventually joined the Quakers and convinced his whole family to join too. More people in the area became Quakers. In 1773, the Nine Partners group allowed David Sands-Ring and Edward Hallock to hold their own meetings in Cornwall. The group grew, and in 1776, the Cornwall Quakers became a separate "preparative meeting." This meant they could handle some of their own business, but still needed approval from Nine Partners.
During the American Revolutionary War, more Quakers from Long Island moved to Cornwall. By 1788, the Cornwall meeting became fully independent. The next year, land was given to the group to build their own meeting house. The Sands-Ring family home was no longer big enough for everyone.
Building the Meeting House
Members of the Quaker community built the meeting house in 1790. It was the first religious building in Cornwall. The outside looked like other homes built at that time. The inside was designed to meet the needs of Quaker worship. The Cornwall Meeting later helped start other Quaker groups nearby. In 1816, Cornwall became its own "Quarterly Meeting," which meant it was fully independent from Nine Partners.
Changes Over Time
In 1825, the Cornwall Quaker community had almost 500 members. Many important families in Cornwall were Quakers. Around this time, there was a big split among Quakers in America. This split was caused by the ideas of Elias Hicks. His followers wanted to keep traditional Quaker ways of worship. Others, called Orthodox Quakers, started to worship more like other Protestant churches. Most of the Cornwall Quakers supported Elias Hicks. The Orthodox Quakers, including the Sands family, left and built their own meeting house around 1829.
Over the 1800s, Quakers became more like other people in society. The Cornwall meeting house changed to reflect this. For example, the porch replaced separate entrances for men and women. In the 1920s, a new wing with a kitchen was added. In the 1950s, the building got electricity and plumbing.
The meeting room originally had a gallery above the main floor. After a fire in 1978, a ceiling was built over the meeting room. Except for this ceiling, the carpet, bench cushions, and paint, the meeting room looks much like it did in 1790.
The stairs leading upstairs have unique, slender rails from the late 1700s. You can also see rough wooden beams that are over 200 years old. The original wood around the windows is still there too.
See also
