Great Barrington's First Meeting House - Great Barrington, MA, USA
N 42° 12.072 W 073° 21.390
18T E 635682 N 4673423
The first Meeting House in the town of Great Barrington was erected in 1742.
Waymark Code: WM13FA0
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 11/29/2020
Views: 0
This stone marker is located within the Water Street Cemetery with a bronze plaque that contains the following dedication:
FIFTY FEET TO THE EAST STOOD THE
FIRST MEETING HOUSE
OF THE
TOWN OF GREAT BARRINGTON
THEN KNOWN AS
UPPER OUSATONUCK
ERECTED 1742. IT WAS USED MANY YEARS FOR THE
PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD, AND AS THE TOWN HOUSE
----
"OUR FATHERS' GOD, WE EXALT HIM."
-----
THIS STONE PLACED BY THE TOWN
1908.
The follwoing information describing the meeting house can be found on page 82 of the book 'History of Great Barrington' by Charles Taylor, 1882:
"The meeting-house was a plain two-story structure, unpainted, about 35 by 45 feet on the ground, with neither steeple, bell or chimney, and with but little exterior or interior decoration. It stood fronting the south, with its gables east and west, with doors in the center of each the south, east, and west sides. Its peak was mounted with the frame of a belfry, which remained unfinished until 1745, when the parish voted "to make a roofe to the Beelfree, shingle and clabord the said Roofe." But the belfry — if completed — disappeared at a period earlier than any per- son now living — familiar with the building, can remember ; though tradition affirms that a sentry box stood on the top of the building. The principal or front entrance was at the south door, from which the " great alley" led up to the pulpit. In the south-east and south-west corners were stairways, leading to the galleries which extended around the south, east, and west sides of the building. The pulpit occupied the center of the north side of the room, and was surrounded by a sounding board which projected from the side wall of the building."
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