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Colonial Meetinghouses Featured in this Project |
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Name of Meetinghouse: Langdon Meeting House & Town Hall
Street Address of Meetinghouse: 5 Walker Hill Road, Langdon, NH Year(s) Built: 1801-1803 National Register of Historic Places Designation: Pending New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places: July, 2002 Organization responsible: Langdon Heritage Commission Organization's address: 122 NH Rt. 12A, Langdon, NH 03602 Organization's web site: Pending Town Information: Info about Langdon NH Tax status: Municipal Government - tax exempt, non-profit IRS 170 (C)(1) Contact: Carole-Anne Centre, 260 Holden Hill Rd., Langdon, NH 03602 Telephone: (603) 835 6229 E-mail: ccentre@msn.com
The Langdon Meetinghouse is a 2 story timber-framed building measuring 40 by 50 feet.
Construction of the Langdon Meetinghouse was begun in 1801, and was completed in 1803.
It has a gabled roof running east-west, a granite foundation set on fieldstone rock, hand-hewn roof trusses, post-and-beam framing, hand-hewn clapboard siding, and a slate roof.
In 2008, The Langdon Meetinghouse was honored by the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance when it was placed on their Seven to Save list of the most endangered Granite State properties. |
In its original construction, porches stood at the east and west ends of the building, at lease one of which enclosed an entrance and a set of
stairs leading to the galleries, which occupied the east, south, and west walls of the interior.
The Langdon Meetinghouse was thus similar to the surviving meetinghouses at nearby Rockingham, Vermont, and Fremont, New Hampshire.
Currently, the property reflects the renovations that took place in 1851 (removal of porches, galleries, and box pews, and installation of a second floor
and steeple). Beginning in 1851, the first floor was used for town business, and the second floor was used for worship by the Universalist Society Church.
The worship space on the second floor remains virtually unchanged from the 1851 renovation.
For over 200 years, Langdon residents have appreciated the role that their Town Hall (the Meetinghouse) has had in their lives.
It began as both a place of worship and the seat of town government, and is still used as the center of social and community activities.
While it is no longer used for regular worship or as its town hall, Langdon has continuously used its Meetinghouse
for town meetings, and claims to hold the record for the most consecutive town meetings in the same building in the state of New Hampshire.
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