The Jamesport Meeting House, built in 1731 by the town’s pioneers, is now safely back in community hands. After two years of strategizing, negotiating and fundraising, the Jamesport Meeting House Preservation Trust is pleased to announce that it closed on its purchase of the building from First Parish Church.
The public is invited to join in a “Celebration” of this success on Sunday, November 16, 3:00 - 5:00pm at the historic Meeting House. There will be wine, hors d’oeuvres and pastries all produced in Jamesport. The artist Fred Bender, a Jamesport native, will be on hand to sign prints of his stunning painting of the Meeting House as it appeared in 1859. Lea Kendall will provide the music.
Admission is $40 at door. Reservations are requested at 722-5170 or patriciacruso@optonline.net. All proceeds will support the preservation and restoration of the Meeting House.
“It has been a long and difficult process,” according to spokesperson Richard Wines, “but in the end, the community really did come together, just as it did to build the meeting house 275 years ago. Even in this difficult time, we were able to raise sufficient financing to acquire the building. Now, we need to start restoring the building and introduce programming that will enable it to once again serve as a real “meeting house” for the community. And, of course, we need to raise the necessary funds to allow us to do all this and pay down our debts. But, given the encouraging levels of support we have already received, we are confident of our long-term success.”
The Jamesport Meeting House is the oldest public building on the East End of Long Island. It is also the oldest building of any kind in the town of Riverhead and provides a direct link with the town’s Puritan pioneers. In 1731, every known family living in what is now Riverhead town – with the exception of the jail keeper – contributed in one way or another to build the area’s first meeting house. It was a remarkable example of a community coming together for a public purpose and is still the historic centerpiece of the Jamesport community.
However, as the 21st century began, the future of the Meeting House was threatened. First Parish, which owned the building as a result of a merger thirty years earlier, had put the building on the commercial real estate market. Potential buyers wanted to convert it into everything from a pizza parlor to an art gallery.
In response to the threat that this historic structure might be sold into private hands and put to inappropriate uses, members of the community came together and formed the Jamesport Meeting House Preservation Trust with the mission of returning the Meeting House to community control and making it once again the center of community life.
The board members of the Preservation Trust realized that they needed to move quickly to purchase the Meeting House, making it impossible to first organize a broad-based fundraising campaign. Instead they put together a financing plan utilizing short-term loans from supporters and a mortgage from Bridgehampton National Bank. With this temporary financing in place, the Trust was able to negotiate a contract to buy the property from First Parish early in 2008. Over the ensuing months, they have worked hard to resolve legal and financial challenges so that the closing could finally take place today.
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