Meetinghouses of Early New England

8. Some Theoretical Models

221 C H A P T E R E I G H T Some Theoretical Models  One of the more salient characteristics of meetinghouses raised in New England and Long Island in the period 1622 to 1830 is the regional variety that thrived within a broader framework of uniformity. This variety goes to the very heart of the vernacular definition of their appearance, and understanding it will help us understand the meetinghouse form. Most parishes and towns followed what appeared to be a regionwide liturgical and social canon. They built “New England” meetinghouses and followed “New England” worshiping practices. Meetinghouses always faced south, with the pulpit on the north side. Behind every pulpit was a window that provided light for the minister to read his sermon . Separate men’s and women’s stairwells led up to the gallery; the Communion table folded down from the front rail of the deacons’ pew for convenience. Nearby was a public burying ground. In a sense, to read one town history is to read them all. But clear variations existed within these larger norms, as well as differences in the time of their first implementation. The overall rate of new construction and church formation was so brisk that constant opportunity existed for the introduction of novel architectural ideas. Successful communities were eager to show their best face to their neighbors and incorporated innovative designs , the most recent decorative modes, and new interior arrangements in their houses of worship. Conservative neighbors, or impoverished ones, presumably watched with dismay and kept to their old ways. Any study of the transfer of this canon must begin with the origin of the form during the Reformation. Architecturally, New England meetinghouses met four of the five basic criteria that differentiated Protestant Calvinistic houses of worship from Anglican and Catholic ones. In an argument first proposed by the separatist Henry Barrow in 1590, Reformed meetinghouses had to avoid the “old idolatrous shapes, with their ancient appurtenances, with their courts, cells, aisles, chancel, [and] bells.” The most important step was to make a welldesigned , permanent pulpit the chief liturgical center of the structure, emphasizing the role of the word of God as the principal feature in the religious service. By 222 Chapter Eight contrast, “lesser” church rituals, such as Communion and baptism, were performed on what was essentially impermanent furniture. The second criterion was to centralize the area of worship. The Protestant congregation faced the pulpit from all directions, creating what in effect was a school-like setting. The third and fourth criteria were to the ensure that the congregation remained attentive, using balconies to bring auditors closer to the pulpit and acoustics to amplify hearing by means of a canopy, dome, or ceiling that helped direct the voice of the minister to the congregation. Only in regard to the elimination of earlier Christian iconography was the New England Protestant experience different from that in Europe. As previously indicated, because there were no Catholic or Anglican churches in the wilderness of North America, as there were in France in the sixteenth century or in England in the seventeenth, there was no need to clear them of the “fretting leprosie” of their furniture and their images.¹ Even so, a European traveler in the 1740s would have found noticeable deviations (if not outright confusion) in the region’s houses of worship. Some meetinghouses were square with high hipped roofs, turrets, and prominent gables; others were rectangular with “English” roofs and high bell towers; still others were octagonal with conical roofs. A few were narrow and long, like horse stables ; others were aligned vertically with one gallery superimposed on another. Parishioners along the eastern coastline gained entry to the gallery by a front stairwell porch; those in the uplands, by side stairwells. Some parishioners sat on plain benches facing the pulpit, the men separated from the women; others enjoyed private pews with special windows and doors opening into the street; still others found that the town had ordered such doors be clapboarded up. A few pulpits were small and in the form of a capsule, but many were massive and capable of seating ten or more people. Where one minister spoke under a carved and colonnaded canopy, others preached under a plain canopy suspended from the ceiling by an iron rod. Some meetinghouses reflected naïvely conceived architectural decorations; others displayed classical colonnades, dentiled cornices, compass windows, and intricately designed steeples. If this visitor were a student of...