Nomination for Rocky Hill Meetinghouse and Parsonage

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

Form 10-300 (July 1969) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM (Type all entries - complete applicable sections) PH0006360 HB NO UT STATE: Mass. COUNTY: Essex FOR NPS USE ONLY ENTRY NUMBER APR 1 1 1972 DATE NAME COMMON: Rocky Hill Meetinghouse + Pansonage AND/ OR HISTORIC: LOCATION STREET AND NUMBER: Portsmouth Road and Elm Street CITY OR TOWN: A mesbury Congressional District # 6 3. STATE CODE COUNTY: CODE Mass.

CLASSIFICATION 25 Essex 009 CATEGORY OWNERSHIP STATUS (Check One) District - Site Building Structure X Object Public Private Both Public Acquisition: - In Process Being Considered Occupied Unoccupied - Preservation work in progress ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC Yes: Restricted U - Unrestricted No PRESENT USE (Check One or More as Appropriate) Agricultural Government Commercial Industrial Educational Military Entertainment X Museum Park Private Residence Religious Scientific Transportation - Other (Specify) - Comments 5 OWNER OF PROPERTY OWNER'S NAME: The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities STREET AND NUMBER: 141 Cambridge Street CITY OR TOWN: STATE: Boston Massachusetts LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION COURTHOUSE, REGISTRY OF DEEDS, ETC: Essex Registry of Deeds, Southern District STREET AND NUMBER: 32 Federal Street CITY OR TOWN: STATE Salem Massachusetts CODE 20 Massachusetts Essex CODE 20 REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS TITLE OF SURVEY: Inventory of the Historical Assets of Massachusetts DATE OF SURVEY: 1965 Federal X State DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS: Massachusetts Historical Commission STREET AND NUMBER: County - Local APR 1 1 19/2 Office of the Secretary, State House CITY OR TOWN: Boston STATE: Massachusetts CODE 20 STATE: COUNTY: ENTRY NUMBER FOR NPS USE ONLY DESCRIPTION (Check One) Excellent CONDITION Good - Fair Deteriorated - Ruins - Unexposed (Check One) (Check One) Altered * Unaltered Moved X Original Site DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (if known) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Description of the property

Rocky Hill Meetinghouse (1785) stands like an austere Puritan sentinel on a rocky ledge overlooking Elm Street about fifty feet to the south. Behind and slightly to the west of the building stands the five-bay, two-story parsonage which was built about the same time as the meetinghouse. This center-chimneyed clapboard residence was moved to its present location from nearby in order to save it from demolition by Route 495. The white clapboard Meetinghouse is two stories high and crowned by a pitched roof, unbroken by chimneys. The seven-bay front facade of the building is divided into two three-bay units by a two-story entrance porch whose pitched roof intersects the building just below the cornice line. Located on the south facade of the porch, the main door is framed by Doric pilasters. These support an entablature with a dentilled cornice.

This cornice is echoed on a slightly larger scale in the pedimented gable of the porch and again on an even larger scale under the eaves of the long facades of the building. In the center of each of the five-bay gabled ends of the building is a supplemental doorway. These doors are framed by Tuscan pilasters and topped by a simple entablature and pediment. On the first story the sash windows are longer than those on the second. On the long facades those on the first story are capped by undecorated cornices. The subtle use of decorative details, the framings of the doors, the dentilled cornices and pediment, and the capped windows are typical of these meetinghouses and lend a natural elegance to these simple rectangular buildings. The interior of the Meetinghouse remains practically unaltered.

In the auditorium, the principal structural timbers of the building project from the walls and have been lett unpainted. Around three sides of the room a gallery is carried on wooden columns which have been marbleized. Boxed pews and benches are unpainted and the sides of the pews are pine panelled. In contrast to the simplicity of the room is the richly carved and panelled pulpit which rises from its position opposite the main entrance as the focal point of the Meetinghouse. Behind it, the roundheaded pulpit window is framed between two marbleized pilasters which support an entablature. A pentagonal sounding board with an ogee roof projects from the top of this entablature. M Form 10-300a (Dec.

1968) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM (Continuation Sheet) (Number all entries) Amesbury, Rocky Hill Meetinghouse 6. Existing Surveys: Historic American Buildings Survey N.P.S., Off. of Archeology & Hist. Preservation 801 19th Street, Washington D.C. Federal Survey: Date: 1937 STATE Massachusetts COUNTY Essex FOR NPS USE ONLY ENTRY NUMBER APR 1 1 1972 DATE -

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

SIGNIFICANCE PERIOD (Check One or More as Appropriate) Pre-Columbian! 15th Century 16th Century 17th Century X 18th Century 19th Century - 20th Century 'SPECIFIC DATE(S) (If Applicable and Known) 1785 AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE (Check One or More as Appropriate) Abor iginal - Education Prehistoric - Engineering Historic Industry Agriculture Invention X Architecture Landscape - Art Architecture Commerce Literature - Communications Conservation Military Music Political Religion/Phi- losophy Science Sculpture Social/Human- itarian Theater Transportation UrbanPlanning Other (Specity) STATEMENT OF SiGNIFICANCE

Statement of significance

The Rocky Hill Meetinghouse, constructed in 1785, is a fine example of a country meetinghouse and the least altered of any eighteenth century meetinghouse in Massachusetts. On that basis both the Meetinghouse and its neighboring parsonage have been certified as a Massachusetts Historic Landmark. Rocky Hill was formerly the west parish of Salisbury (now in Amesbury). The parish separated from the older part of Salisbury in 1716 and built its first meetinghouse, which stood north of the present one. When that first building became beyond repair, the parishioners voted to build the new meetinghouse in Rocky Hill. The church exterior is the type most representative of New England meetinghouses: a simple rectangle with dentil course at the cornice, covered by a pitched roof, with the main entrance on the long facade of the building, opposite the pulpit.

The parish began to decline shortly after the new meetinghouse was completed. Since there were no funds available for modernizing the building, the interior of the Rocky Hill Meetinghouse has remained virtually unchanged. The auditorium retains its original high pulpit with pentagonal sounding board, box pews, deacon's desk and the gallery on three sides supported by simple Doric pillars. 181) Noj NATIO REGIST :1990

The rest of the file

Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.

MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES Rose, Harold Wycliffe, The Colonial Houses of Worship in America, New York, Hastings, 1963. Sinnott, E. W., Meeting Houses and Churches in Early New England, New York, McGraw Hill, 1963.

10 GEOGRAPHICAL DATA LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE COORDINATES LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE COORDINA TES DEFINING A RECTANGLE LOCATING THE PROPERTY DEFINING THE CENTER POINT OF A PROPERTY CORNER R OF LESS THAN TEN ACRES LATITUDE LONGITUDE LATITUDE LONGITUDE Degrees Minutes Seconds Degrees Minutes Seconds Degrees Minutes Seconds Degrees Minutes Seconds NW 42 51' 01 ° 71° 54' 39" NE " SE SW APPROXIMATE ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY: five acres ILIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOUNDARIES STATE: CODE COUNTY CODE STATE: CODE COUNTY: CODE STATE: CODE COUNTY: CODE STATE: CODE COUNTY: CODE FORM PREPARED BY NAME AND TITLE: Anne Wardwell, Survey Director ORGANIZATION DATE Massachusetts Historical Commission October 15, 1971 STREET AND NUMBER: Otfice of the Secretary, State House CITY OR TOWN: CODE 20 Boston 12.

STATE LIAISON OFFICER CERTIFICATION Massachusetts NATIONAL REGISTER VERIFICATION As the designated State Liaison Officer for the Na- tional Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-665), I hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to the criteria and procedures set forth by the National Park Service. level of significance of this nomination is: National State Local I hereby certify that this property is included in the Nationa 1 Register.

htle Chief, Office of Archeology and reservation APR 11 1972 Nomohu FX.0 ouore Secretary of the Commonwealth, Chairman Massachusetts Historical Commission Date March 18, 1971 Date ATTEST: hitllan huten APR 1 1 Date M - UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES PROPERTY PHOTOGRAPH FORM (Type all entries - attach to or enclose with photograph) NAME COMMON: Rocky Hill Meetinghouse AND/OR HISTORIC: LOCATION STREET AND NUMBER: Portsmouth Road and Elm Street CITY OR TOWN: Amesbury STATE: CODE COUNTY: 20 Massachusetts PHOTO REFERENCE PHOTO CREDIT: Anne Wardwell DATE OF PHOTO: February 1965 NEGATIVE FILED AT: Massachusetts Historical Commiss IDENTIFICATION DESCRIBE VIEW, DIRECTION, ETC.

68-77 Rocky Hill Meetinghouse South facade Form , 10-301 (July 1969) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES PROPERTY MAP FORM (Type all entries - attach to or enclose with map) STATE COUNTY Massachusetts ,Essex FOR NPS USE ONLY ENTRY NUMBER Z16L I I ddV DATE Z Z - NAME COMMON: Rocky Hill Meetinghouse AND/OR HISTORIC: LOCATION STREET AND NUM BER: Portsmouth Road and Elm Street CITY OR TOWN: A mesbury STATE: CODE COUNTY: 20 Massachusetts MAP REFERENCE SOURCE: U. S. G. S. Newburyport West, Mass. - N. H. SCALE: 1 : 24,000 DATE: 1952 REQUIREMENTS TO BE INCLUDED ON ALL MAPS 1. Property broundaries where required. 2. North arrow. 3. Latitude and longitude reference.

Essex CÓDE 009 (150) 55' 234R CLINTON |760 000 FEET (MASS.) YONGR 150 Batt Hill Salisbury Plains 100 lundy Hill - X193 -MAIN TT EOREOI Amesbury Country Club- 70°52'30" 42°5 N. H. 0.4 MI. SMITHTOWN PORTSMOUTH, N. H.I7 MI. 68000 (MAS' 0I MI. TO U.S.I omod High -Sch -KER 42º 51'01" POAD River UNDER Ro SALISBURY. 0.7.MI. asbur Poin B M24 Deer I( UTM corrected 17/17/07 19/343892/4745992 Eagle R IV ER - 12 IMERRIMAC BOUNDARY U.S.G.S. 71-1/2°Quadrang1e "Newburyport West, Mass.-N.H." Scale 1:24,000 (1952) 50 4/5/72 HR NRowland: mm ENTRIES IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER STATE KAASECETISEMTS APR 1 1 1972 Date Entered Name North Eaaton Tailroad Statfon Pilgrim Eall Rocky mlll Heetinghouse and Pazsonago Exench Cable Station Ieaac Davia Tra11 Location Horth Easton Bristol County Piymouth Plynouth County Ane sbury Essex County Oileans Barnstable County Aaton, Concord Middleses County Also Notified Hon.

Edward M. Kennedy Hon. Diwari W. Brooce Hon, Inegaret M. Meckier Bon. Hastinga Keith Ion. Alchazl 3. Larrisgton Hon. Robert F. Deinan Director, Northeast Region State Liaison Officer son. Jobn E. 3. Davorcn Secretary of the Commonvoalch Chalzman, Massachusotts Hiscorical Comtiasion DEfice of tho soczecary Stato Fouso Boston, Hassachusetts 02133 MS ROCKY HILL MEETINGHOUSE AND PAR- SONAGE (25-74-00057-00). Amesbury, Essex Co. Private ownership (SPNEA). An example of Country Meetinghouse, built in 1785. Work to include reroofing to original cedar shingle. $5,250.00.