Colonial-Era Meetinghouse Uncovered in New Hampshire

DOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE—The Associated Press reports that archaeologists led by Meghan Howey of the University of New Hampshire investigated the site of the Second Meetinghouse, which was built in 1654 for the congregation of the First Parish Church on New Hampshire’s Dover Point. The first meetinghouse, located further south on the tip of Dover Point, was abandoned when the colonists built a village to the north. The excavators uncovered the structure’s floor, which is thought to have been made with clay brought from nearby rivers. Two postholes detected in the soil may have been part of the structure’s foundation. Howey said that historic records indicate the structure was repaired in 1658. She thinks the second post may have been installed to shore up the first one at this time, and rocks at the site may have been moved there to stabilize the posts. The parish used the Second Meetinghouse until 1720, when all services were transferred to the third church building constructed in the new center of Dover. Church historian Diane Fiske speculates that bricks at the site may have been part of a replica meetinghouse constructed in the 1800s for a Dover Old Home Day festival. Children who visited the replica meetinghouse may have been given slate pencils like the ones discovered at the site last year, she added. For more on architecture in the American colonies, go to "Fairfield's Rebirth in 3-D."