| Object ID |
9999.6.5 |
| Description |
Photograph of the Old Meetinghouse, Brooklyn, Conecticut. Built 1771. Steeple rebuilt after hurricane of 1938.
The Congregational Church of Amherst, NH, closely resembles this church. The comparison was made by Eva Speare in her 1938 book "Colonial Meeting-Houses of New Hampshire," page 31. She wrote, "If the picture of the meeting-house in Brooklyn, Connecticut is noted, the appearance of Amherst's completed building may be imagined, before alterations were made in 1835." On Page 183 she wrote, "Brooklyn, 1771, and Amherst, New Hampshire, were identical, their steeples designed from the same pattern book, without doubt."
This image was taken from "Meetinghouse and Church in Early New England," by Edmund W. Sinnott, 1963, p. 50. Sinnott describes the Brooklyn meetinghouse as follows: "It is a large house with its long axis east and west, its main door south, and its tower at the east end. Crowning the tower is an octagnal, columned belfry with arched openings and roof curved into a dome. The domed belfry was an early method of treatment, for we find it in the Old Ship and Old Brick meetinghouses. Indeed, the Brooklyn steeple is so like that of the Old Brick of Boston as to suggest it was a direct copy. The original steeple blew off in the hurricane of 1938. The restoration is not an exact replica, and is less attractive in its proportions than the original."
See object 9999.6.6 for an image of the Old Brick, Boston, MA. |
| Date of photo |
1963-1963 |
| Source |
William Veillette |
|
