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The Cornwall Friends Meeting House is a historic meeting house located on a parcel of land at the junction of Quaker Avenue (Orange County 107) and US 9W in Cornwall, New York, United States, near Cornwall-St. Luke's Hospital. It is both the oldest religious building in the town, and the first one built.〔 In 1988 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a well-preserved, minimally-altered example of a late 18th-century Quaker meeting house. Built in 1790, it emulates the doubled style of meeting house pioneered by Buckingham Friends Meeting House in Pennsylvania two decades earlier.〔, retrieved August 1, 2007.〕 David Sands-Ring, a local convert to the Religious Society of Friends and the son of a wealthy landowner, sponsored the construction of the meeting house. At first a branch of the Nine Partners meeting near present-day Millbrook in Dutchess County, it later became an independent congregation within the Society. Members also maintain the Smith Clove Meetinghouse in Highland Mills to the south of Cornwall. ==Property== The property consists of the meeting house, a carriage house and cemetery. All are considered contributing resources to the Register listing. The meeting house itself is a two-and-a-half-story four-bay white clapboard structure, set amid tall oak trees and set back slightly from the street. It has a full porch on the south (front) elevation, where separate entrances project at either end. Rough-hewn post-and-beam framing supports the house on a stone foundation. The gabled roof has a slight overhang but no decoration. A one-story wing with brick chimney rising from its metal-shingled roof extends from the northeast corner.〔 Inside, the main floor is divided into two rooms of equal size, with a removable partition between them, an original feature found in many Quaker meeting houses of the period. The western half, used for services, features plain white benches along every wall facing the center of the room, where a Bible sits on a small table. The benches along the northern wall, reserved for elders, are slightly elevated. The east room, used for meetings and social gatherings, has a piano, folding tables and chairs and a library of Quaker reading. Two original stairs lead up to the upper story, formerly a gallery that overlooked the lower rooms. Much of the original work, including the bare ceiling, remains. The northeast wing contains a kitchen and two bathrooms.〔 The carriage house is located to the east of the meeting house. It is a five-bay open-front structure, built of pegged and hewn timber framing with vertical siding. 〔 The structure is an early five-bay, open-front shed with pegged and hewn framing and vertical siding. The building is thirty-two feet east of the Meeting House, with the front of the open bays aligned with the back (or south) wall of the Meeting House. One of the bays has been enclosed for storage. The simple heart of this magnificent structure remains unmodified: massive posts and beams held together by hand-hewn pins. Along several of the supporting timbers, and on the far (east) wall, one can see evidence of restless horses’ gnawing on the wood. One may also see some century-old mischief, as children’s pen-knives have left such marks as “GTC: 1877.” The cemetery, located to the northwest of the meeting house, contains graves dating to 1799. Not all of the 771 entombed are Quakers, as the cemetery was not restricted to congregants and it was the only one in Cornwall at the time. Early tombstones are of sandstone, with later markers of marble, reflecting changing trends in the 19th century. Funerary art is absent from graves of Quakers, per the faith's preference for simplicity, and minimal on non-Quaker resting places. The only exceptions are three 19th century headstones in the Quaker section with carvings of flowers, all the graves of children, and some early 20th century granite stones. The Cemetery is an active part of the Cornwall Monthly Meeting, the operation of which is overseen by the Cemetery Committee of the Meeting. Interments continue to take place, both of Quakers and others to whom the site holds a special claim.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cornwall Friends Meeting House」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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