Danville Meetinghouse - Danville NH - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The Danville meeting house is a 2 1/2 story framed structure with an asphalt gable roof. Its foundation is mortared fieldstone. The walls are covered with riven clapboards. The building has 3 entrances on each of the east, south and west facades. The south elevation is the primary entrance.

The Danville meeting house remains close to its original appearance. There is evidence to suggest the doorways may have changed during the Federal period, because of style.

After 1832, when the Free-Will Baptist meeting house was constructed in Danville (then still named Hawke), the old meeting house was used less frequently for religious meetings, though regular town meetings continued to held her until 1887.

In 1911 the Old Meeting House Association was formed to ensure the preservation of the structure.

The Danville meeting house is one of the oldest such structures in New England to survive relatively unchanged. It is the oldest of a small group of related meeting houses remaining in Rockingham County and adjacent Essex County. Together, the buildings in this group are the largest assemblage of early meeting houses in New England, preserving within a radius of ten miles a rare picture of the typical public buildings of the 18th century New England town.

The Danville meeting house was built in 1759-60 in the western parish of the township of Kingston, NH. This parish was formally set off and incorporated as the township of Hawke in 1760. This structure became the chief public building of the town, used for both public meetings and religious meetings. Because Hawke (renamed Danville in 1836) never attained a large population and because of growing success of the Free-Baptist religion drew parishioners to a private meeting house 2 miles away, the old meeting house was left relatively unchanged.


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Street address: N. Main St. Danville, NH County / Borough / Parish: Rockingham Year listed: 1982 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1750-1799 Historic function: Government, Religion, Social Current function: Education, Religion, Social Privately owned?: no Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 1: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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