. Some old time meeting houses of the Connecticut Valley. has well described him as Americas greatestsaint. The man who on his death bed could send tohis wife the well known message, Give my kindestlove to my dear wife and tell her that the uncommonunion which has long subsisted between us has been ofsuch a nature as I trust is spiritual, and therefore willcontinue forever, was surely a good husband, as wellas a profound thinker. This third house of worship, like its predecessor,stood for about three quarters of a century. The ac-companying illustration is said to be a good represent-ation of
. Some old time meeting houses of the Connecticut Valley. has well described him as Americas greatestsaint. The man who on his death bed could send tohis wife the well known message, Give my kindestlove to my dear wife and tell her that the uncommonunion which has long subsisted between us has been ofsuch a nature as I trust is spiritual, and therefore willcontinue forever, was surely a good husband, as wellas a profound thinker. This third house of worship, like its predecessor,stood for about three quarters of a century. The ac-companying illustration is said to be a good represent-ation of the structure and was made from a sketchdrawn by William F. Pratt, architect, about forty yearsago. When the time came to erect the fourth meetinghouse, the noble edifice so familiar to the older peopleof to-day, the increased wealth and general resourcesof the period made it possible to build a house ofworship of beautiful design and stately was brought from New York the architectCaptain Isaac Damon, then in his twenty eighth year. 22. JOXATIIAX i:i»\\AHJ)S He had studied architecture under Ithiel Towne ofNew York. He was engaged to make the plans anddirect the building of the new house. The church inNorthampton was the first independent work in churchbuilding done by Captain Damon. He afterwardsbuilt a dozen more churches in the region. It is inter-esting to note that he made a specialty of bridgebuilding and built nearly all of the bridges that wereconstructed in the early part of the nineteenth centuryover the Connecticut river and several of those thatspanned the Penobscot, the Mohawk, the Hudson, andthe Ohio rivers. The church in Northampton built by CaptainDamon was completed in 1812. It was at the timethe most elaborate house of worship in westernMassachusetts. It had a seating capacity of nearlytwo thousand people and was in excellent conditionwhen it was unfortunately destroyed by fire in theafternoon of June 27, 1876. The accompanying illus-tration
Size: 1373px × 1821px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidsomeoldtimem, bookyear1911
