Meetinghouses of Early New England

Contents

Contents  Introduction: A New England Icon Reconsidered 1 PART I: THE BACKGROUND 1 The Meetinghouse and the Community 13 2 The Meetinghouse and the Church 29 3 The Builders 49 4 Seating the Congregation 62 PART II: THE ARCHITECTURE 5 Meetinghouses of the Seventeenth Century 77 6 Meetinghouses of the Eighteenth Century 118 7 Meetinghouses of the Early Nineteenth Century 204 PART III: CONCLUSIONS 8 Some Theoretical Models 221 9 Meetinghouse Architecture as Puritan Ecclesiology 239 10 A Fleeting Image 264 Epilogue 273 Appendix A: Tables 281 Appendix B: Chronological checklist of meetinghouses in New England and Long Island, 1622–1830 289 vi Appendix C: Pinnacles, pyramids, and spires, 1651–1709 347 Appendix D: Enlargements of meetinghouses in New England by cutting the frame, 1723–1824 348 Appendix E: Citations of exterior painting, 1678–1828 350 Appendix F: Citations of interior painting, 1656–1817 359 Appendix G: Meetinghouse replications in New England, 1647–1828 364 Notes 375 Works Cited 403 Acknowledgments 429 Index 431 Fully annotated versions of Appendixes B-G and a complete bibliography, including sources cited only in the appendixes, are available online at http://scholarworks.umass.edu/umpress. vi Contents MEETINGHOUSES OF EARLY NEW ENGLAND  Town locations in southern New England cited in the text. Map by the author. ...