The Apponegansett Meeting House or "Apponagansett Meeting House" is a historic Quaker (Friends) meeting house on Russells Mills Road east of Fresh River Valley Road in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Built in 1791, it is the oldest Quaker meeting house in southeastern Massachusetts, and one of its best preserved. The property it stands on, which includes a cemetery, has been used by its Quaker congregation since at least 1699. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.
The
Apponegansett Meeting House is set on the south side of Russells Mills Road,
just east of Fresh River Valley Road. It is a two-story wood frame structure,
with a gable roof, wooden shingle siding, and a rubblestone foundation. It is
set atop a low rise on about 14 acres (5.7 ha) of land, which include a
cemetery (located south and west of the building), a 19th-century privy house,
and the archaeological remnants of the first meeting house and other
outbuildings
The meeting
house was built in 1791, on land that has been used by local Quakers since the
17th century. Dartmouth was established by Quakers in 1664, including most of
what is now Westport, Acushnet, New Bedford,
and Fairhaven.
Their first meeting house was built on this property (exact location
undetermined) in 1699, and the cemetery is the burial ground for many of
Dartmouth's early settlers. The first meeting house was repeatedly enlarged,
until it was decided to build the present structure in 1791. Despite the
decline in local Quaker congregations, the building continues to be maintained
by the community, and is used for services in the summer. Several scenes of Down
to the Sea in Ships, a 1922 film, were filmed there.
There was a neat old cemetery next to the house.
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