Dana Meeting House
a.k.a. First Free Will Baptist Meeting House
Dana Hill Rd., New Hampton, NHThe Dana Meeting House is significant architecturally as the best surviving onestory early meetinghouse in New Hampshire. The well-preserved meetinghouse is also notable for the simple dignity of its exterior and the fine craftsmanship of its interior, particularly the pews and the pulpit.
The First Free Will Baptist Church in New Hampton was organized in January of 1800. The Free Will Baptists at first met in the homes of church members but soon decided to build a meetinghouse. Construction of the Dana Meeting House is said to have begun in the fall of 1800. But the first mention of the building in the church records appears in April of 1802 when Josiah Magoon, Abraham and Nathaniel Drake were appointed a committee "to take the oversight in building the meeting house". In July, Jeremiah Marston sold the present lot to the Free Will Baptists for ten dollars. The deed refers to the meetinghouse as already standing and uses as the boundary the semicircular stone wall that had already been built by the Baptists around the building. At the August church meeting, the meetinghouse was discussed and it was concluded to bring forward the materials as soon as possible". In October, when the subject of the meetinghouse was again taken up, "the Brethren pretty freely offered materials and concluded to try to cover it this fall".3 These scanty references are virtually all that is known about the construction of the building. We are not able to identify either the designer or the builders. But the church records do tell us when the building was completed. On December 8, 1802, the Free Will Baptists met at Abraham Drake's barn, "then repaired to the new Meeting House" 4 for worship and the ordination of two elders and two deacons, including Elder Simeon Dana (1775-1853), the physician-minister whose long association with the meetinghouse gave the building its current name.
The meetinghouse was originally furnished with crude benches. In 1810, it was decided to complete the interior and sell the pews at auction. Stephen S. Magoon, a local cabinet maker and the son of Elder Josiah Magoon, agreed to finish the interior and build the box Pews for $300. When the builder presented his accounts in September of 1810, he had exceeded the agreed cost by only 55 cents. Stephen Magoon's craftsmanship is responsible for much of the meetinghouse's present interest and charm.
The Dana Meeting House was saved from the usual 19th-century modernization by the decline of its congregation. Originally, the meetinghouse served the Free Will Baptists of a large area, encompassing five towns. But during the early and mid 19th century, independent churches were organized in the neighborhoods and the villages of this area.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.