Re: Midway Church architectural style

["John S. Quarterman" <jsq@quarterman.org>]

>One might say that the Midway Church was in the style of the Puritans, 
>whether brick or wooden.  The smaller churches were wooden, and the grand 
>ones, such as Boston's Old South Meeting House, were of brick, but the 
>interior was always the same----about as Spartan as one could get.  Not even 
>candlestick holders were tolerated, certainly no cross or picture. 

This all makes sense.

>At first the Puritan churches of New England were exactly like their Cape 
>Cod, Salt Box style houses, brought from East Anglia northeast of 
>London----except, the houses had a chimney in the center of the house so it 
>could warm various rooms. The birth house of John Adams as well as the house 
>of the Salem witch craft victim, Mrs. Nurse, at New Salem, show this style.  
>Their churches had no chimneys because the  Puritans did not believe in 
>heating churches.  The one in Midway had and has neither heat nor lighting. 
>The Midway Church was different from New England in that there was a balcony 
>at the back for seating slaves. Photographs of all these buildings except 
>Boston's Old South Meeting house appear in the Way family history I 
>published.

Here's a picture of Adams' house:
 http://www.oldhouseweb.net/stories/Detailed/10309.shtml

And one of Rebecca Nurse's house:
 http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/Homestead.html

Midway Church is similar to a salt box, except symmetrical.

There's a drawing of a meeting house in the Nurse page,
and the meeting house is symmetrical.

Also, the round windows and square tower with round top
of Midway Church are a bit unusual.

>Later, in New England, the churches were no longer entered from the center of 
>the long side of the building, as in the restored Old Meeting House at New 
>Salem, Mass..  Instead, they had a steeple at one end and the people entered 
>the church from the shorter side rather than the longer side.  In the burial 
>crypt of John Adams and wife and their son John Quincy Adams and wife, there 
>is a model of this type of church attended by the Adams family. The Midway 
>Church is of this style. 

I've heard that Midway Church was originally entered from the long side,
and the entrance was later changed to the short end.  I don't know
whether that's true, and I don't remember where I heard it.

Here's an interesting hybrid.  In Orcutt's Good Old Dorchester,
there is an engraving of the old church of Dorchester, Mass.,
built in 1743.  It has *both* an entrance on the long side
*and* a square tower on the short end with a round top.

There are differences, such as that the tower is apparently
tacked onto the end of the church, rather than on top of the
end, as at Midway.  And the roof has two slopes, rather than one.

Still, it looks like the missing link between the Salem saltbox
meetinghouse and Midway Church.

>Dane Bowen in Alexandria, Va., researching Bowen, Bacon, Carlton (Carleton), 
>Luker, Sanders (Saunders), Chaudoin (Chaudoins), Maverick, Richey (Ritchie, 
>Richie, Ritchey), Spence, Sumner, Way, and Wells families.

Alexandria?  I was just there last weekend for a conference.  Wish I'd
remembered you were there, so I could have said hello.

John S. Quarterman <jsq@quarterman.org>
[ This is the Quarterman book discussion list, book@quarterman.org
[ To get off or on the list, see http://www.quarterman.org/booklist.html