Smith Clove Meeting House
The Smith Clove Meetinghouse is a meeting house of the Quakers in Highland Mills , New York in the United States , not far from the New York State Route 32 at the Smith Clove Road. It is the oldest surviving religious community in Woodbury . It was built in the early 19th century and is still used by Cornwall Quakers for meetings at least once a year .
The building was rebuilt and renovated in the middle of the 19th century, but still reflects the time of its construction. It was inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
building
The assembly house is located in the center of a two acre (about 80 Ar ) comprehensive plot, which is on a slightly ascending slope towards the west. The area around the structure is open, several large trees and a few smaller trees cast their shadows on the building. A small cemetery for the members of the community is located directly north of the building.
The structure is a one-and-a-half-story clapboard building in post construction on a base made of field stones, which comprises two yokes in width and four in length . The gable roof is also covered with wooden shingles; a central fireplace sits on the ridge.
A porch runs the full length of the south side. At the end there is an entrance with associated windows. These two inputs of the room could be entered separately if the business meetings was shared the room with a wooden partition. The men then gathered in one room for consultation, and the women in the other. For the meetings for worship , the partition wall was removed and the room was shared. This design was typical for quakers at that time. The walls are made of painted wooden panels and the floor is made up of wide wooden planks. The furniture is limited to simple wooden benches and two wood stoves . There are two more windows on the east and west, and a toilet block is attached to the rear.
history
The Smith Clove congregation began in 1790 under the umbrella of the Quaker Congregation from Cornwall, a few miles further north. They met in the house of a local parishioner until after a decade the need for their own meeting house became clear. The land for the meeting house was acquired in 1801. The name of the parish goes back to the original owner of the land after the Cheesecocks patent , a man named William Smith and the Dutch expression kloof , which means a steep, narrow valley, very similar to that in which Highland Mills is located, between Schunemunk Mountain and the Hudson Highlands where Woodbury Creek flows.
The members of the community probably built the house with their own efforts and began using it after completion in 1803. To avoid expropriation of the property - this was what happened to other Quaker associations prior to American Independence - some of the community members retained ownership of the property and did not transfer it to the community.
In the middle of the 19th century the building was renovated, with most of the building and its furnishings remaining unchanged. The clapboard walls of the building correspond to those of other meeting houses of this religious community from around 1800, but were probably also renewed at the time of the renovation. Since there was no longer any threat of confiscation, ownership of the building was transferred to the Quaker community in 1886. Over time, the number of Quakers in Highland Mills declined to the point where they returned to the Cornish congregations. However, a meeting is held annually at Smith Clove.
glossary
For the terms used, see also the article Glossary Quakerism .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d Stephen Levy: National Register of Historic Places nomination, Smith Clove Meetinghouse . New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . November 1973. Retrieved March 9, 2009.
- ↑ New York Yearly Meeting Directory of Monthly Meetings by Name ( English ) New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Retrieved February 14, 2011: “11:00 AM last Sun. in Aug. at Smith Clove Meetinghouse; call for location "
Coordinates: 41 ° 21 '40 " N , 74 ° 6' 41" W.