National Register reference number.74000395- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
There are several mineral springs near the centre of the town, and the water furnished by iheUxbridge Water Company proves, upon analysis, to be about absolutely pure, being nearly equal to that of the famous Poland Springs, and pronounced by local physicians to be nearly as effectual in the cure of kidney and urinary troubles. At no distant day these springs will be appreciated, and a sanitarium will invite the health-seekers to come and be cured. Uxbridge ranks among the older towns of the county, having been incorporated three years before the county itself.
In 171G it seems that the western part of the town of Mendon and the eastern part had a disagreement about the road to be built to Taft's bridge, over the Great River (Blackstone), which led to the appointment of a committee of conference. This difficulty having been adjusted, the next recorded difference which arose was in 1720, when, as appears by the '-Mendon Annals," "the inhabitants of the west part of the town (now Uxbridge) began to agitate the question of dividing the town, or of being allowed to be a precinct by themselves; but upon their petition to that effect, the town took no action."
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 95 fires within 5 miles of Friends Meetinghouse
between 2002 and 2020, burning about 74 acres in total. None started naturally. 11 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
28
Debris and open burning
27
Recreation and ceremony
12
Arson/incendiarism
11
Smoking
11
Railroad operations and maintenance
4
Other causes
1
Equipment and vehicle use
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 363 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Friends Meetinghouse between 1844 and 1974: 188 Plantae, 131 Animalia, 30 Fungi, 9 Protozoa, 3 Unrecorded, 2 Chromista.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. R. Hodgdon; F. L. Steele, A. R. Hodgdon; F. L. Steele and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
21 workings within 5 miles of Friends Meetinghouse: 14 past producers, 5 producers, 1 unknown, 1 prospect.
5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite, Lead, Zinc. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Uxbridge, the town this property stands in, in 6 storm reports between 1996 and 2021: 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
United States Geological Survey topographic
sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then
testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
Ruins [] Moved - Unexposed (Check One) XOriginal Site The Friends' Meetinghouse in Uxbridge is situated on a wooded knoll which overlooks the Quaker Highway (Route 146) and the Meetinghouse burial ground. It was erected between 1770 and 1776 on land purchased from Moses Farnum, an elder and first minister of the Meeting. The structure is rectangular in plan, three bays wide by two bays deep, and two stories high. The wall fabric is brick, laid in common bond. Chimney flues are incorporated into the east and west gable ends of the gently-sloped ridge roof. The two story entrance vestibule was added to an otherwise austere main (south) facade during the first quarter of the nineteenth century.
At this time the 1771 entrance, which consisted of a double leaf door, was removed and bricked over. It was replaced by two single doors which flanked the original door frame. The original interior stair was removed to the vestibule addition, providing access to the second floor gallery. The interior of the Meetinghouse was probably renovated at the time the vestibule was added. A moveable interior partition was inserted, running north- south, which divided the first floor into two unequal spaces. Panels were suspended by a system similar to that which operates sash windows. When in place they created two separate meeting spaces; when raised they did not interfere with the large, single, interior first floor space.
A fireplace was added at this time to the east wall, opposite the original fireplace in the west wall, to heat the second space created by the partition. The seating arrangement, dating from the nineteenth century and typical of Quaker meetinghouses of the period, consists of two banks of benches which face each other.
The Friends' Meetinghouse (1770-1776) in Uxbridge is of architectural and local historical significance. It is of architectural significance as an unusual example of the use of brick as wall fabric in an eighteenth century New England meetinghouse. Because the form of Quaker meetinghouses traditionally bore a greater relation to domestic rather than ecclesiastical architecture, and because several of the houses in Uxbridge at that time - including the Moses Farnum House - were built of brick, one can explain the use of brick in this instance. The Uxbridge Meetinghouse is also a good example of the typology of eighteenth century Quaker meetinghouses in New England.
The interior moveable partition and the installation of two separate entrances to the spaces created by that partition are indicative of the nineteenth century custom of separating the female and male elements of a Meeting at certain times. The austere interior and exterior finishes reflect the striving for simplicity which was a part of Quaker life. The Friends' Meetinghouse is of local significance in the history of the development of the town. The Quaker faith was introduced to Uxbridge by Friends from Smithfield, Rhode Island. As Uxbridge is close to the border, the settlement served as a bridge between the liberal Quakers of one state, and the severe Congregationalism of the other.
The woolen mills for which Uxbridge is known were founded by members of the Uxbridge Meeting, and have contributed greatly to the town's economic growth. The Meetinghouse was restored in 1954 and 1955 to its present state with funds raised from the town and from neighboring Meetings. AL151 <6) (21131 RECEiVED NOV 1 41973 NATIONAL REGISTER 16 10.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 74000395, 10 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
Block
