Major Bibliographical References (Cite the books, articles, and other sources used in preparing this form on one or more continuation sheets.) Previous documentation on file (NPS): _ preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67) has been requested _ previously listed in the National Register _ previously determined eligible by the National Register _ designated a National Historic Landmark _ recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey Primary location of additional data: X State Historic Preservation Office Other State agency Federal agency -Local government _ University Other Name of repository: _ recorded by Historic American Engineering Record # Massachusetts Historical Commission NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 1 OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 Amesbury Friends Meeting House Amesbury (Essex County) Massachusetts 8. Significance The Amesbury Friends Meeting House, the fourth built in the community, is significant as one of the most intact 19"h-century Quaker meetinghouses in the northeast part of Massachusetts. In its architecture it embodies the fully-developed Quaker aesthetic of its time, and through its associations with the lives and accomplishments of the members of the Amesbury Society of Friends it exemplifies the Quaker philosophy. The property meets Criterion A at the local level for 150 years of service as the center of activity of the Amesbury Friends, a major religious subgroup in Essex County and the adjoining section of New Hampshire with origins dating back to the 1650s.
The building was the locus, not only for worship services, but for the social activism inherent in Quaker beliefs that locally took its most visible form in the mid 19th-century anti-slavery movement, which was led by some of the society's members. Among them was one of the most eloquent anti-slavery voices in the country, poet and author John Greenleaf Whittier, who came to Amesbury in part because of the presence of the Friends congregation, and served as the head of the building committee for the fourth meetinghouse. The property also meets Criterion C at the local level as a well-preserved mid 19"-century meetinghouse which employs a subdued version of the Greek Revival style to interpret such Quaker values as frugality, simplicity, and harmony of form.
Such features as the very large 20/20 windows, the egalitarian interior seating arrangement, and the movable partition which served to separate the worship space into male and female compartments for the business meetings are the physical embodiment of aspects of the Quaker philosophy. In spite of the 1991 alterations to the basement of the building, the Amesbury Friends Meeting House maintains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association; it also meets the requirements of Criterion Consideration A for religious buildings. The town of Amesbury, located in the northern portion of Essex County, was originally part of the large 1638 Merrimac(k) Plantation, which included land in Essex County, Massachusetts, and in southern New Hampshire.
Settlement began in the 1640s, and in 1666 its territory was included in the land west of the Powwow River that was separated from Salisbury and incorporated as Salisbury New Town. The next year the name was changed to Amesbury. In the 19* century some parts of Salisbury were re-annexed to Amesbury, and in 1876 the land that makes up the town of Merrimac was divided out. Amesbury is flanked by the New Hampshire border on the north, Salisbury on the east, and Merrimac on the west; the Merrimack River forms the town's southern border. Although most of the early residents of Amesbury were Congregationalists, by 1657, shortly after Quakerism was founded, Quakers (Friends) formed a small but significant subgroup in the Salisbury/Amesbury area.
As religious dissenters, they endured a long period of persecution in the late seventeenth century, during which they traveled to neighboring Hampton and Seabrook, in what is now New Hampshire, to attend religious meetings. In 1705, the group of Friends in Amesbury purchased a lot at the town center on Friend Street (which later derived its name (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 2 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Amesbury Friends Meeting House Amesbury (Essex County) Massachusetts from that original building) to construct their own small meetinghouse. By that time one of their members, Thomas Challis, who served on the Building Committee, was a town Selectman.
During his several terms in office, Thomas Challis did much to dispel some of the long-standing public policies which created hardship for citizens who did not espouse the prevailing Congregational/Calvinist theology. He opposed the tax imposed on Quakers and other non-Congregationalists which forced them to support the town church and minister, and in 1714, Quakers were freed from the local tax. According to tradition, the first Friends meetinghouse was later torn down, and in the 1740s a second meetinghouse was built near the site of the first one on Friend Street. In 1803-04, Jacob Rowell, a member of a longtime Quaker family, sold the Amesbury Friends Meeting another lot on Friend Street (now occupied by the Sacred Heart Parish.) There they built a third, larger meetinghouse, which they occupied through 1849.
The next year, seeking a quieter location more removed from the center of town, they bought the currentproperty at the intersection of Friend and Greenleaf Streets from Eliphalet Barnard. Construction of the present building was begun in 1850 and apparently completed early the next year. The third meetinghouse was moved to Pond Street, purchased by the Freewill Baptist Church, and subsequently converted to a rental house. By 1850, a number of conventions in the form and language of Quaker meetinghouses in America were well established. In general, 19*h-century examples were simple rectangular buildings, often barnlike, with twin entrances, the left one traditionally used by men, the right by women.
The typical interior was furnished with rows of plain unpainted, unpadded, wooden benches, oriented not toward an alter or pulpit, but toward a "facing bench" for elders (appointed officials who oversee the spiritual lives of the members) and recorded ministers--individuals who are particularly gifted in spoken ministry. Youths and servants were seated in upper galleries. At Amesbury, in spite of the replacement of many of the benches in the 1890s, the interior is still intact, with rows of movable benches, a facing bench along the west wall, and a narrow gallery at the east end over a broad vestibule. While at Amesbury there is a single exterior entry centered in the east facade, there are separate men's and women's doors in the inner wall between the worship space and the vestibule.
The accommodation of an abundance of natural light, which was understood by Quakers to be evocative of God's light and conducive to meditation and spiritual growth, was an important consideration in the design of Friends meetinghouses. The huge multilight sash windows in the Amesbury meetinghouse are one of the best illustrations of that concept. (While they might otherwise be considered something of an anachronism in an 1850 building, the 20-over-20-sash windows have a prominent local precedent in the 1785 town church, the Rocky Hill Meetinghouse, [NR 1972].) In accordance with the Quaker values of frugality and simplicity, architectural decoration was minimal. Minor embellishments, however, especially those with a practical purpose, such as window blinds and projecting door hoods, were features that were shared by both meetinghouses and Quaker domestic housing.
(continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 3 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Amesbury Friends Meeting House Amesbury (Essex County) Massachusetts While there is a simply-bracketed hood over the main entry at Amesbury, there is no decoration at the windows. (Two-part louvered exterior window blinds from the Amesbury windows were taken down in the 1990s; the most salvageable examples are stored on the premises.) Other Quaker concepts, including their views of ministry, worship, church organization, and egalitarianism also found expression in the architecture of their buildings.
While men and women worshiped together, for instance, they sat on separate sides of the meetinghouse and held separate business meetings,--a practice which dated back to the 1671 teachings of Quaker founder George Fox (1624-1691.) Illustrative of the Quaker view of equality between the sexes, it meant that women, as well as men, kept the society's records, and became skilled in business responsibility. The effect of the segregation was to amplify rather than hush the voices of the female members, giving their deliberations equal weight to those of the men. Quaker women also frequently rose to preach during the worship meetings. Such participation in Quaker meetings fostered public speaking and leadership skills, an effect that has been noted in the significant number of Quaker women who emerged as leaders in the 19** century anti-slavery and women's suffrage movements, including Susan B.
Anthony and Lucretia Mott. To accommodate the separate and simultaneous business meetings, which took place once a month after the worship service, most Quaker meetinghouses constructed between 1671 and 1870 (the year the practice was discontinued) were built with counterbalanced partitions or hinged panels which could temporarily divide the worship space into two separate compartments. The interior of the Amesbury meetinghouse incorporates the original central partition, which is still raised and lowered on special occasions by the original hoisting mechanism. Few intact mid 19t*-century Quaker meetinghouses survive in New England.
Among the handful of extant, fully developed gable-front buildings of the period are the similar-sized meetinghouse at West Epping, NH (1851); the 1842 meetinghouse in West Falmouth, MA, (which has an altered interior;) and the smaller Smith Mills Friends Meetinghouse, built in 1849 in Dartmouth, MA, which has recently been dismantled and relocated to Deerfield, MA, where it is to become part of a Quaker retreat. In northeastern Massachusetts, the Amesbury Meetinghouse is the only pre-Civil War Quaker meetinghouse still used for its original purpose. The size of the fourth Amesbury Friends Meetinghouse, which at 40 by 48 feet is larger than most of the other Quaker meetinghouses in the region, reflects the stature and importance the Society of Friends had achieved in Amesbury by 1850.
By the middle of the 19* century the dominance of the Congregational church in Amesbury had given way to greater tolerance and a more diverse religious climate. Many of the Friends served as Selectmen and as other town officers, and in various ways exerted a strong influence on the development of the community as a whole. The family of Eliphalet Barnard, for instance, later donated the land for the town library. Although many members were farmers, the society included several wealthy and influential merchants and industrialists. Among them were successive generations of the Huntington family, including M. Newell Huntington, who bequeathed a valuable collection of Indian relies (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 4 OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 Amesbury Friends Meeting House Amesbury (Essex County) Massachusetts to the town of Amesbury which is now on display at the Bartlett Museum, and Jacob Huntington, considered "the father of the carriage industry"--the industry which, beginning in the 1850s, brought world renown to Amesbury. The ample size of the fourth Amesbury meetinghouse also illustrates the significance of the Amesbury Monthly Meeting's role within the larger Quaker community. Quaker societies ("meetings") are organized geographically into monthly, quarterly, and annual meetings--the reference being to the frequency of their gatherings for the purpose of conducting business. The Monthly Meeting, which holds its business meetings once a month, is the smallest unit, typically consisting of a single worshiping community, which sometimes includes smaller, less organized communities under its care.
The Amesbury Meeting, for instance, assisted in the development of a number of smaller "preparatory" meetings, including West Newbury, and several in New Hampshire--Weare, Epping, West Epping, Pittsfield, and Seabrook. The Quarterly Meeting is a regional organization. In Massachusetts, the Quarterly Meeting serving much of the coastal region presently encompasses the area from Amesbury south to a preparatory meeting in Hingham. For over a hundred years after the meetinghouse was built, from 1851 to 1962, the Amesbury Friends Meeting House was the location for the gatherings of the Salem Quarterly Meeting, during which time the region served was much larger, and included several societies in southern New Hampshire as well as Massachusetts. The best-known of the Amesbury Friends, both today and in his own time, was the poet, author, and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892).
Born in Haverhill, he had both Quaker and Puritan ancestry. He was raised as a Quaker, and attended the Amesbury meeting long before he and his family moved to town. In his youth he was both a poet and journalist (1826-1832,) editing newspapers in both Boston and Haverhill, and by 1830 was named editor of the most important Whig journal in New England, the New England Weekly Review, in Hartford, Connecticut. He returned to the Haverhill area in 1832, and, encouraged by Newburyport abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, devoted much of his time to the cause of abolition. Over the next decade, with such essays as his pamphlet Justice and Expediency, he became arguably the most influential writer on abolition in the country. He served one term in the Massachusetts legislature from Amesbury, and in later years became a well-known lobbyist in Boston and Washington.
He was a member of the Electoral College in 1860 and in 1864, the year Lincoln was elected President. One of Whittier's poems, Ein Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott (Luther's Hymn,) (published in June, 1861,) which calls for the abolition of slavery, later influenced Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Whittier moved to Amesbury in 1836, largely to be closer to the flourishing Quaker society of which he had been an active member since childhood. He settled with his mother, aunt, and sister in a house across the street from the third Friends meetinghouse. Whittier's most prolific work, both poetry and prose, including his only novel, Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal (1849,) was produced between 1843 and 1865. During that time, he published eight volumes of poetry and most of his literary prose, including numerous articles and reviews. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.
10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 5 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Amesbury Friends Meeting House Amesbury (Essex County) Massachusetts An Amesbury Selectman and a devout Quaker, Whittier was closely involved with the activities of the Amesbury Friends for most of his life. As chairman of the Building Committee for the fourth meetinghouse, he was the driving force and primary decision-maker in its construction. It was he who chose the carpenters--two elders and a minister--as well as the head carpenter in charge of construction, Thomas W. Thorndike, of Weare, New Hampshire. His control over the design of the building was made clear by his niece, Mrs. S. T.
Pickard, speaking in 1901: "Some of the Friends feared he would be too modern in his ideas, and add unnecessary comforts, but when he employed three elderly carpenters, all members of the Friends Society, the result was the very plain house which has now become famous because it was where he worshipped." The Amesbury meetinghouse was also an integral part of Whittier's literary life. Over the years, in his writings he drew upon his Quaker faith, his experience at Friends meetings, and the meetinghouse he knew so well as both subject matter and inspiration. His spiritual values and his social consciousness permeate much of his prose and most of his poetry, and in later life, (1866-1892,) he was known as "the Quaker poet." Some of Whittier's poems vividly portray the meditative silence of the Quaker meeting as the vehicle to spiritual insight and fellowship with others.
Pennsy/vania Pilgrim, describing Quaker meetings of William Penn's time, includes the lines Lowly before the Unseen Presence knelt Each waiting heart, till haply some one felt On his moved lips the seal of silence melt. Or, without spoken words, low breathings stole Of a diviner life from soul to soul, Baptizing in one tender thought the whole. Referring to the poem, Whittier's biographer Rufus Jones noted that "Only a person who had experienced the best and deepest aspects of the Quaker type of meeting for worship could have written those words of insight. The 'low breathings of a diviner life,' passing from soul to soul, like a spiritual contagion, is what ought to happen in Quaker worship." (Jones, The Faith of John Greenleaf Whittier, 23.) Whittier conceived the ideas for many of his poems while sitting with his brethren in the Amesbury meetinghouse.
He stated that Laus Deo, for instance, a poem praising God for the abolition of slavery, "formed itself" as he sat, waiting on the Lord, in the meetinghouse. His poem First Day Thoughts (1853) deseribes a worship experience there, as does The Meeting (1868): And so I find it well to come For deeper rest to this still room, For here the habit of the soul Feels less the outer world's control; (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 6 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Amesbury Friends Meeting House Amesbury (Essex County) Massachusetts The strength of mutual purpose pleads More earnestly our common needs; And from the silence multiplied By these still forms on either side, The world that time and sense have known Falls off and leaves us God alone.
In the circle of the Amesbury Friends, that "mutual purpose," in which Whittier played so great a part, was shared by a group of people who included farmers, merchants, and professionals, and who worked together toward common goals. As Rufus Jones describes them, "The members of this meeting in Amesbury were for the most part inarticulate in words, but there were in the group some Friends who In one example, during the 1850s Whittier and other members of the Amesbury Meeting exerted a stabilizing influence when the New England Yearly Meeting (the annual gathering encompassing all Quaker Meetings in New England) experienced some major theological disagreements. At the urging of Whittier and others, the Amesbury Meeting stead fastly refused to take sides in the schism that developed among factions in the Yearly Meeting.
As an abolitionist, John Greenleaf Whittier was also part of a long Quaker tradition, and he had many compatriots among the Amesbury Friends. As early as 1671, the founder of Quaker worship, George Fox, had urged Friends to treat their slaves well and to free them after some years of service. By the early 18" century, many Quaker societies were questioning the practice of human slavery altogether, and in 1758, the New England Yearly Meeting passed a resolution prohibiting Friends from buying and selling slaves. While much of the history of the fugitive slave movement is unwritten, records show that Newburyport Quaker Richard Plumer often drove fugitives to Amesbury in his farm wagon, and delivered them to the care of both John Greenleaf Whittier and another society member, Robert Brown.
It is believed that the fourth Amesbury meetinghouse was used as a waystation on the Underground Railroad; a small chamber located in the basement until the 1991 renovations has traditionally been thought to have been part of that network. The chamber, concealed below the floorboards of the worship space, was apparently fitted with several sleeping berths. Over the course of the latter half of the 19" century and into the 20th ",New England Quaker meetings lost large numbers of members to other churches. Some societies moved closer to the mainstream by becoming "programmed meetings," in which ministers were hired and music, readings, and set prayers were incorporated into the service. During Whittier'slifetime the Amesbury Society apparently experimented with adding music to the worship service.
He noted with dismay a woman who came to an Amesbury meeting and "sang like an evangelist." He afterwards lamented "I didn't know as we would (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 7 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Amesbury Friends Meeting House Amesbury (Essex County) Massachusetts ever be able to get the sing out of the meetinghouse." ("Where Whittier Prayed," 1902.) The Amesbury meeting apparently became a programmed meeting for a time in the early 20" century. Elderly Friends recall the employment of a hired minister, and photographs taken of the interior between about 1905 and 1915 show that a piano occupied the center front of the worship room.
The Amesbury society ultimately returned to an "unprogrammed" meeting, however, in which the members adhered to the quiet of the traditional Quaker meeting and individually assumed responsibility to minister to each others' needs. In 1902 the Amesbury Friends numbered about fifty people, in about a dozen families. As some meetings within the region overseen by the Salem Quarterly Meeting closed or became inactive, the membership of the Amesbury society was bolstered by an influx of Friends from other societies. Although the Amesbury Friends were active through mid-century, during a period between 1975 and the early 1980s the Amesbury Monthly Meeting was "laid down," or temporarily discontinued. During that time the meetinghouse was rarely used, and its ownership was transferred to the New England Yearly Meeting.
The Amesbury meeting was reactivated by a small worship group and reestablished as a Monthly Meeting in the late 1980s. In 1989 the property, which over the years had lost about 5 percent of its land area, was conveyed back into their ownership. The congregation has grown in numbers since its reestablishment, and today is an active spiritual community, carrying on the Quaker "testimonies," or basic beliefs, which include a rejection of war, living a life of simplicity, and finding "that of God" in all people. Current ministries at Amesbury include social justice, Bible study and other adult study, and children's spiritual educational programs. The 1991 conversion of the meetinghouse basement to provide space for a Headstart program for low-income children is one reflection of the Amesbury Meeting's ongoing commitment to social change.
Today, as it ends its 150th year in the fourth meetinghouse, the Amesbury Monthly Meeting is still a traditional meeting, without hymns, sermon, set prayers or responsive readings, and without a hired minister. Archaeological Significance Since patterns of ancient Native American settlement in Amesbury are poorly understood, any surviving sites could be significant. Ancient sites in the meetinghouse locale may be significant by contributing information on the importance of sites located along tributary streams of the Merrimack River to sites located along the main channel of that drainage. Native American sites in this area may represent a seasonal component of a subsistence and settlement strategy that was based on resources and site locations along the coast or the main drainage of the Merrimack River.
Historic archaeological resources described above have the potential to document the facilities present at a Friends Meeting House and the extent that Quaker frugality and simplicity characterized those facilities and the activities at the facility. Structural evidence and artifacts associated with the carriage and horse sheds may document the extent that minimal aspects of transportation and equine care were characteristic of those facilities. Detailed analysis of the (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 8 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Amesbury Friends Meeting House Amesbury (Essex County) Massachusetts contents of potential occupational related features may also contribute information relating to Quaker frugality and simplicity.
Archaeological testing in and around the meetinghouse area may contribute information that indicates the extent that earlier parts of the structure were altered during renovations. Structural evidence may be present that documents a secret chamber, reported to be used hiding fugitive slaves, in the basement area. Archaeological evidence of that structure and artifacts related to African-American culture, possibly from occupational related features, may help document the role of Quakers and the Amesbury Friends Meeting House in the Underground Railroad Movement. (end) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 9 Page 1 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Amesbury Friends Meeting House Amesbury (Essex County) Massachusetts 9.
Major Bibliographical Sources BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, MANUSCRIPTS Amesbury Monthly Meeting (formerly Seabrook Monthly Meeting,) Minutes, 1883-present. (Records of the Religious Society of Friends, New England Yearly Meeting Archives, Rhode Island Historical Society.) Freeman, Donald, et al. Whittier and Whittierland, Portrait of a Poet and his World. North Andover, MA: Trustees of the Whittier Homestead, 1976. Hurd, D. Hamilton, ed.. History of Essex County, Massachusetts, Vol. II. Philadelphia: J.H. Lewis & Co., 1888. Jones, Rufus M. The Faith of John Greenleaf Whittier, 1938. Reprint, New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, Kellett, John P. Centennial of Amesbury Friends Meeting House and Society of Friends in Amesbury, 1951. (unpublished manuscript at Amesbury Public Library.) Merrill, Joseph. History of Amesbury and Merrimack. Haverhill: Press of Franklin P. Stiles, 1880. Moore, Willard B.
"The Preferred and Remembered Image: Cultural Change and Artifactual Adjustment in Quaker Meetinghouses." in Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, II., Camille Wells, ed. U. of Missouri Press, 1986. Rice, Margaret S. Brief History of the Carriage Industry in Amesbury, Massachusetts, 1831-1927. Amesbury, MA: the Whittier Press, 1927. Salem Quarterly Meeting. Minutes, 1705-1985. (Records of the Religious Society of Friends, New England Yearly Meeting Archives, Rhode Island Historical Society.) Sawyer, Dana. Notes on the history of the Salem Quarterly Meeting. 4/21/1994. Siebert, Wilber. The Underground Railroad in Massachusetts. Worcester, MA, 1936. Weeks, Silas. New England Quaker Meetinghouses, Past and Present. Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 2001. "Where Whittier Prayed." Article from unknown newspaper, 8/9/1902. Whittier, John Greenleaf. Journal of John Woolman.
Boston: Osgood & Co., 1871. Woodwell, Roland H. John Greenleaf Whittier: a Biography. Haverhill, MA: Trustees of the Whittier Homestead, 1985. (continued) Amesbury Friends Meeting House Name of Property 10. Geographical Data Essex, MA County and State 02-376 PIW RECEIVED 2280 Acreage of Property less than one acre UTM References (Place additional UTM references on a continuation sheet) 1. 19 341600 4746310 Zone Easting Northing 2. Zone Easting Northing 9 2002 3. Zone 4. Zone Easting _ See continuation sheet NAT. REGISTER OF HISTONIC PLACES NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Easting Northing Northing Verbal Boundary Description (Describe the boundaries of the property on a continuation sheet.) Boundary Justification (Explain why the boundaries were selected on a continuation sheet.) 11. Form Prepared By name/title_Martha McManamy, with Anne Forbes, ed.
consultant; Betsy Friedberg, National Register Director, MHC organization Massachusetts Historical Commission date January 2002 street & number 220 Morrissey Boulevard city or town Boston _state_Massachusetts telephone_617-727-8470 _zip code_02125 Additional Documentation Submit the following items with the completed form: Continuation Sheets Maps A USGS map (7.5 or 15 minute series) indicating the property's location. A sketch map for historic districts and properties having large acreage or numerous resources. Photographs Representative black and white photographs of the property.
Additional items (Check with the SHPO or FPO for any additional items) Property Owner (Complete this item at the request of the SHPO or FPO.) name Amesbury Monthly Meeting of Friends street & number 120 Friend Street telephone_ 978-465-4382 city or town Amesbury state MA zip code - 01913 Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C. 470 et seq.).
Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 18.1 hours per response including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Chief,Administrative Services Division, National ParkService, P.0. Box 37127, Washington, DC 20013-7127;and the Office of Management and Budaet. Paperwork Reductions Proiect (1024-0018), Washinaton, DC 20503. NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 9/10 Page 2/1 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Amesbury Friends Meeting House Amesbury (Essex County) Massachusetts 9.
Major Bibliographical Sources, continued GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS Massachusetts Historical Commission: Flynn, K., and Young, W. MHC B-Form for Friends Meeting House. Survey of Historical and Architec- tural Resources, Amesbury, Mass, 1989. Amesbury Reconnaissance Survey Report, 1985; updated 1997. Essex County Middlesex County Registry of Deeds and Probate. (end) 10. Geographical Data, cont. Verbal Boundary Description The nominated property consists of the 14,280 square-foot parcel #260, Assessor's Map #52, at the corner of Friend and Greenleaf Street, on which the Friends Meeting House stands. Boundary Justification The boundaries encompass the major portion of the original property on which the Amesbury Monthly Meeting of Friends built their fourth meetinghouse in 1850. (end) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.
10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Amesbury Friends Meeting House Amesbury (Essex County) Massachusetts RESOURCE COUNT Map numbers are shown on the Assessor's map. MAP# 1 2 NAME OR DESCRIPTION DATE Amesbury Friends Meeting House1850-51 playground 1990s C=contributing; NC= non-contributing B = building; O = object; Si = site; St = structure STATUS TYPE C NC B St TOTAL RESOURCE COUNT: BUILDINGS SITES: STRUCTURES: OBJECTS: Contributing 1 Non-contributing 0 0 0 1 0 TOTAL: TOTAL: NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 Amesbury Friends Meeting House Amesbury (Essex County) Massachusetts Photographs All photographs taken by Anne Forbes, November 2001 unless noted East and north elevations, Friend St. in foreground (Martha McManamy photo, 1999) 2. View SW to Greenleaf Street and town park View W with old Indian path East façade 5 Northeast view with picnic benches Interior, vestibule looking N South worship space, looking SW South worship space, east wall North worship space, looking SE I0. Gallery, looking s 11. Attic, hoist mechanism for dividing panels H.
Attic, windlass (end) UNTRED STANE DERA AENSORTOE INTERIOR ATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACE VALUATION/ RETURN SHEE REQUESTED ACTION: NOMINATION PROPERTY NAME : Amesbury Friends Meeting House MULTIPLE NAME : STATE & COUNTY: MASSACHUSETTS, Essex DATE RECEIVED: DATE OF 16TH DAY: DATE OF WEEKLY LIST: 5/07/02 DATE OF PENDING LIST: DATE OF 45TH DAY: REFERENCE NUMBER: 02000376 6/21/02 REASONS FOR REVIEW: APPEAL: N DATA PROBLEM: NLANDSCAPE: N PERIOD: REQUEST: N SAMPLE: N SLR DRAFT: N COMMENT WAIVER: N VACCEPT RETURN REJECT ABSTRACT/ SUMMARY COMMENTS : LESS THAN 50 YEARS: PROGRAM UNAPPROVED: NATIONAL: 4.18-02DATE Entered in the National Fegister RECOM./CRITERIA REVIEWER TELEPHONE DISCIPLINE DATE DOCUMENTATION see attached comments Y/N see attached SLR Y/N Apestary. Friends Mecting Hrase 120 Friend ST. Amesburg, MA OEAST aNd NORTH GLGUATIONS M.
1999 91 0611 N-2 N-3 23998 HERE 2 AMESBURY FRIONAS MEGTINA HOUSE GSSGR CO., MA VIOW SW, TO GROONCOAF ST. + TOWN PARK MN TTO S790P1100Z/TT-WS A, FORBOS 11/01 3) AmESBURA FRENDS MOOTiAC AUUSO GsSox Co., MA Vioro wosT, With OLD INDIAN PATH II60CO9ID100Z/TT-15 A, ROMBOS "1/01 FRIENDS MEETINGHOUSE AMOSBURA FRIADIS MOZTINE ADISE GssEx Co., MA GAST PACADE TN TTWO SZ9CTETT002/TT-18 A,BRBOS, 11/1 O AMOSBURM FRIENDS MOOTIDE HOUSO GSSER CO, MA VIOW NOREHEAST MM TIVO SZ9CCS1100Z/TT-M5 A. TORBOS, 11/01 6 AMOS BURY FRIENDS MOZTINE HOUSC ESSoR CO, mA VOSTBULE, LOOKINE NORTIA TTP0 929[503100Z/TT-WS A.
FORBES, 11/01 O AMESBURY FRIERAS MEOTINa HOUSO Gssox Co, MA SoUTt WORSHA SpACã, 100KINE SW A, FORBOS 11/01 8 AMESBURY FRIONDS MEOTINE HOUSOS ESSER CO., MA SOUTAI WERSHP SPACE: Rorh Wall TN TTPO 22905011002/11-09 A, FERBOS 11/01 OAMOSBURY FRIENAS MOSTINA HOUSE Lssox Co., mA NORTIT WORSHIA SPACE, LOOKING SE 2NTIP0S91I00Z/TT-US A PORBOS 11/01 TOAMESBURY FRIENDS MoETINa NoUSO ESSGK CO., MA QALLERY, LOoKeNG Sonth 73. ¡euoIs oid A, FORBOS, '1101 BM11. 2001C153625 0 H-2 IAMESBURY I PRIENDS MEOTAG NOUSE ESSER CO., MA HOIST MOCHANSM for DUMDING PANEES (PARTITION) ZNIT+O S29C1211002/TT-9 A, FORBoS, 11/01 12) AMOSBURY FRIENDS MOSTINE HOUSO GSSox CO, mA ATMC: WINDLASS ZN II+O 979C2211002/TI-W9 A, FoRBos 11/01 The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Massachusetts Historical Commission February 5, 2002 Ms.
Carol Shull National Register of Historic Places Department of the Interior National Park Service Mail Stop 2280, Suite 400 1849 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20240 Dear Ms. Shull: Enclosed please find the following nomination form: Amesbury Friends Meeting House, 120 Friend Street, Amesbury (Essex), MA The nomination has been voted eligible by the State Review Board and has been signed by the State Historic Preservation Officer. The owners of the property were notified of pending State Review Board consideration 30 to 45 days before the meeting and were afforded the opportunity to comment.
Sincerely, Beteyfredheig Betsy Friedberg National Register Director Massachusetts Historical Commission Enclosure CC: Anne Forbes, consultant Kathy Lowell, Amesbury Historical Commission John MacDonald, Chair, Amesbury Planning Board Mayor Nicholas Costello, City of Amesbury Fritz Weiss, Treasurer, Amesbury Monthly Meeting of Friends Martha McManamy 220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, Massachusetts 02125 (617) 727-8470 - Fax: (617) 727-5128 www.state.ma.us/sec/mhc
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