Smith Clove Meeting House

The Smith Clove Meeting House 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 on the Smith Clove Road. It is the oldest surviving building a faith community in Woodbury. It was built in the early 19th century and is still used by the Cornish Quakers at least once a year for meetings.

The building was rebuilt in the mid 19th century and renovated, but still reflects the time of its creation resist. It was founded in 1974 entered in the National Register of Historic Places.

Building

The meeting house is located in the center of a two- acre ( 80 Ar) comprehensive plot, which is on a slightly ascending to the west slope. The area around the building is built on open, several large trees and some smaller cast their shadows on the building. A small cemetery for members of the community located just north of the building.

In the building there is a one and a half storey building verschindeltes in post and beam construction on a base of boulders, the two in width and in length comprises four bays. Its gabled roof is covered with wood shingles; a central fireplace sits on the ridge.

A veranda runs the full length of the south side. At the end there are one input with associated windows. These two inputs of the room could be entered separately if the space was shared with a wooden partition to business meetings. In a space then the men gathered for deliberation, and in the other women. The devotional meetings ( meeting for worship ) the partition was removed and the space used together. This design was typical of that time at Quakers. The walls are made of painted wood panels and the floor form wide wooden planks. The furniture is limited to simple wooden benches and two wood stoves. Two more windows are located on the eastern and the western side, a portable toilet is attached to the back.

History

The Smith Clove community began in 1790 still under the umbrella of the Quaker meeting of Cornwall, a few kilometers further north. This met in the house of a resident community member until after a decade, the need for a separate meeting house noticeably came to light. The land for the meeting house was purchased in 1801. The name of the village goes to the original owners of the land after the Cheese Cocks patent, a man named William Smith and the Dutch expression kloof back, which indicates a steep, narrow valley, quite similar to that in which Highland Mills is located between Schunemunk Mountain and the Hudson Highlands, where the Woodbury Creek flows.

The members of the congregation built the house probably with their own forces and began after the completion in 1803 with use. To avoid that the land would be expropriated - this was other groups of Quakers happen before the American Independence -, retained some of the members of the community ownership of the land for himself and not carried it to the church.

In the mid-19th century, the building was renovated, with the bulk of the building and its equipment remained unchanged. The shingled walls of the building are similar to those of other meeting houses of this community of faith from the time around 1800, but were probably also renewed at the time of renovation. Since the seizure no longer threatened, the property was transferred to the building in 1886 to the Quaker community. Over time, the number of Quakers went in Highland Mills back so far that they took part again in the meetings in Cornwall. Once a year, however, a meeting will be held in Smith Clove.

Glossary

For the terminology, see also Article Glossary Quakerism.