Forty Fort Meetinghouse

Forty Fort Meetinghouse is a historic meeting house at River Street and Wyoming Avenue in the Old Forty Fort Cemetery in Forty Fort, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1806–08 in a New England meeting house style with white clapboard siding and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Forty Fort Meetinghouse
Forty Fort Meetinghouse, HABS Photo, November 1934
LocationRiver St. and Wyoming Ave., Forty Fort, Pennsylvania
Coordinates41°17′4″N 75°52′18″W
Area0.1 acres (0.040 ha)
Built1807
ArchitectHitchcock, Joseph; Underwood, Gideon
Architectural styleNew England meeting house
NRHP reference No.88002373[1]
Added to NRHPNovember 3, 1988

History

The first European settler in the area came from Connecticut in the late 18th century. In 1768 public lands were set aside in the area for churches by the Susquehanna Company, but because of the Yankee-Pennamite Wars and the American Revolution actual building of the churches was delayed by over 30 years. An unfinished meetinghouse nearby was destroyed after the Battle of Wyoming in 1778.

Joseph Hitchcock of New Haven, Connecticut, who also designed the Old Ship Zion Church in Wilkes-Barre, designed the meetinghouse. It was the first completed church used for religious services in the area. It was a Union Church with both Congregationalist (now Presbyterians) and Methodists worshipping in the church. By 1837, both groups had built their own churches, and the meetinghouse has been used rarely since. In 1869, the Forty Fort Cemetery Association was created by the Pennsylvania state legislature and the Association still owns the church and cemetery.[2][3]

  • Interior of the meetinghouse, looking toward the pulpit
  • Interior of the meetinghouse

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. Forty Fort Meetinghouse, National Park Service, accessed April 17, 2011.
  3. "National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania" (Searchable database). CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information System. Note: This includes Helen Kish (1986). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Forty Fort Meetinghouse" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-13.
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