It only took me about four years, but I finally visited the Rockingham Meeting House – a National Historic Landmark. Construction began in 1787, completed by 1801. It is the oldest public meeting house in Vermont with such a high level of historic integrity. Meetings were held in this building until 1869, after which the building was neglected and vandalized until 1906, when local residents were concerned with its fate and took up its restoration. Today the building hosts weddings and special events, but remains unheated and un-electrified. You can visit in the summer months, from 10am-4pm. It’s quite the impressive building.
Rockingham Meeting House.
From the hill.
The drive up to the meeting house.
Foliage made the site even more beautiful
From the other drive. It’s hard to get a photographs of the front of the meeting house because it sits on a hill.
Front entrance.
Clapboard, rosehead nails, small panes of glass.
Looking through the window.
Edge of the cemetery.
Looking back to the meeting house.
Cemetery.
A National Historic Landmark.
In the cemetery.
Next visit, I’ll get there in time to go inside! And, when the federal government gets beyond this shutdown, you can the read the National Historic Landmark nomination and see photographs here.
Preservation in Pink 