Neck Meetinghouse and Yard

The Neck Quaker Meeting House is located on the north side of Maryland Route 404 approximately ~ mile west of the town of Denton, on the northwest corner of the intersection with Maryland Route 328. The Meeting House is located in a grove of mature oaks and smaller mixed hardwoods and pine trees. There are six marked burials visible with stones dated from the 1850s to 1890. Two plain granite stones with no markings identifies another burial, presumably dating to the same period; more recently, interrinents were made in 1969 and 1979. It is assumed that other burial sites are present but are no longer marked. A cast iron pump is located about 10 yards to the southeast of the meeting house. The meeting house is a one-story rectangular framebuilding with a pitched gable roof oriented on an east–west axis approxi-mately parallel to Route 404. The building measures 30 feet 8~ inches long and 20 feet five inches deep; it rests on a continuous brick foundation and is covered with plain weatherboard siding and a wood shingle roof. The principal facade faces south to Route 404. There is only one door in this facade: a low, wide door measuring five feet one inch high and three feet five inches wide. This door is offset to left of center and is flanked by single 6/6 win-dows on either side. The batten door is not original but appears to be a later 19th century replacement. It is constructed of plain vertical boards secured to three beveled battens with machine-made nails and is hung on hand-wrought H-L hinges mounted with screws. A small hickory string-latch appears to date to the installa-tion of the second door, but the hinges and a wrought iron bracket for a drop bar appear to be original. The flanking windows are fitted with board shutters that also appear to be a later 19th century addition or replacement. They are constructed of vertical beaded boards secured to two beveled battens with wood screws; they are hung on butt hinges. The continuous brick foundation is relatively crudely laid in a random bond. The random width, plain weatherboar d siding is circular sawn and secured with machine-made nails, with an average exposure of 4-5~ inches. The eaves are boxed in with plain, unbended boards; the roof is covered with wood shingles.

On the east gable end of the building, there is a single door centered in the first story and a small shuttered window opening offset to left of center in the upper gable. This door is more of a standard size, measuring two feet six inches wide and six feet two inches high. It is constructed of random-width beaded boards secured to three beveled battens with hand-wrought nails. The door is hung on plain butt hinges that do not appear to be original. Scattered nail holes do not seem to be related to earlier H- L hinges; the original hinge arrangement is not evident. The gable opening is fitted with a battened shutter but no sash. The shutter is constructed of plain vertical boards nailed to beveled battens with machine-made nails; it is hung on butt hinges. The foundation and siding match the front facade; the gable eaves are trimmed with unbeaded, tapered rakeboards. A pair of 6/6 windows are the only openings on the rear facade. These windows are placed approximately one foot higher than on the other three facades to allow for the facing bench that is placed against this wall inside. The plain batten shutters are hung with large barn hinges; notches for earlier butt hinges are evident. An opening near the west end of the foundation wall allows limited access to the crawl space under the building. The siding, cornice and roof match the front facade. A single 6/6 window centered on the first story is the only opening in the west gable wall. This window is fitted with early shutters constructed of single beaded boards reinforced with beveled battens secured with wrought nails. They are hung with wrought strap hinges mounted with wood screws and nails that are heavily covered with whitewash. The foundation, siding and rakeboards match the east gable wall. The interior consists of a single large room with an enclosed stair in the northeast corner. There is no evidence of any partition that might have divided the meeting room. A "facing" or elders bench on a raised platform extends the full length of the north facade wall. The platform is raised ten inches above the rest of the floor; a simple balustrade extends along the frontedge of this platform. The balustrade consists of a simple rail with molded top edges supported by widely spaced newel posts with beaded edges facing the elders' bench and plain edges facing the room. A simple bench is built into the room face of the balustrade, similar to the "secondary" facing bench at Third Haven Meeting House in neighboring Talbot County. The latter bench is constructed with very fine machine-made nails, but the nailing battens that receive the bevel supports to the floor appear to be nailed with wrought nails. It would appear that these benches have been rebuilt but a detailed examination is needed. The elders' bench is built against the north wall of the room and is similar to Third Haven in that there are wide, beaded boards nailed to the wall framing to form the bevel back. These boards are nailed with wrought T-head nails, while the horizontal sheathing above the bench is nailed with the very finely made machine nails presumed to date to the later renovation. Beaded horizontal boards received with T-head nails survive on all four walls of the room; the rest of the interior sheathing is evidently later and may be evidence that this meeting room was once lined with benches on all four walls, with plaster above the bench backs, as at Third Haven. A detailed examination will require lights and a thorough sweeping to search for nail holes and ghosts of bench supports. Eight moveable benches are arranged in two rows on either side of a central aisle leading to the south door. These are similar to the 18th century benches at Third Haven but are constructed with machine made nails. The ceiling joists are beaded and are left exposed. They measure 2 3/4" x 7~" and appear to be of poplar. They are too small in section for the twenty foot span and have been reinforced in this century with a heavy beam and two posts bisicting the meeting room longitudinally. The stair in the northeast corner of the room is enclosed with early beaded boards nailed with wrought T-head nails; the stair soffit was sheathed at a later date. The loft is floored but otherwise unfinished. The unglazed window in the east gable is the only opening. The roof is of common rafter construction; the rafter pairs are joined at the ridge with pegged mortise-and-tenon joints. Collar beams are half-lapped and nailed with wrought nails; the rafters rest on flat false plates.[2]

Quaker Meeting House in Caroline County and one of only a few still standing on the Eastern Shore. Up until the time of the Revolution, the Quaker and Episcopal Churches were by far the most active and numerous of denominations on the Eastern Shore, and the Quakers were in the forefront of the abolition movement in the state up until the Civil War. The few meeting houses which remain are important reminders of the Quaker heritage. The Neck Meeting House and three other meeting houses are listed on the National Register.* There are two brick meeting houses located in Cecil County: The West Nottingham Meeting House (CE-227) built in 1811, and the substantially older East Nottingham Meeting House (CE-82) which dates to 1724 and has been altered and expanded after several fires. Two other meeting houses are located in Talbot County: the historic Third Haven Meeting House built i n 1684 which retains virtually all of its original appearance, and the Peach Blossom Meeting House (T-121), a small octagonal frame building constructed in the late nineteenth century. The majority of the meeting houses which once stood on the Eastern Shore have vanished although a few are still possibly standing in converted form. Among these is the former Greensboro Meeting House, a frame building constructed shortly after the Quakers acquired the property in 1795. This has now been move d to Ridgely and converted to a private residence. Other Quaker meet-ing houses still possibly exist in Preston and about three miles west of Federalsburg in Dorchester County. The latter was known as the Piney Grove Meeting Hous e and was converted to a residence in the mid-twentieth century.

The Neck Meeting House is therefore a rare and unaltered example of religious architecture of this sect. It was built in 1802 and retains much of its interior pit-sawn chestnut and pine woodwork. For many years it was also used a s school by the local Quakers. The meeting house was sold by the Quakers in 1905 and acquired by the present owners in 1949.[2]

• Neck Meetinghouse and Yard, Caroline County, including photo from 1999, at Maryland Historical Trust