{"nrhp_refnum":"91000241","name":"Apponegansett Meeting House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Russells Mills Rd. E of Fresh River Valley Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Dartmouth","county":"Bristol County","state":"MA","lat":41.58333390100003,"lon":-70.99383316657227,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1991-03-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Exploration/Settlement","Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story, gable-roofed, shingled Quaker meetinghouse built in 1790 on Russells Mills Road in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, with a burying ground established in 1706, a privy, stone walls and possible archaeological remains on a 14-acre site.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is one of the oldest and most intact early Quaker meetinghouses in southeastern Massachusetts, showing the austere architecture typical of the type. It succeeded the 1699 Dartmouth Monthly Meeting meetinghouse, the first in the Dartmouth area, on the same site. The Quaker meeting and its members also shaped the agricultural community of Dartmouth from the seventeenth to the twentieth century.","narrative":"Set back from Russells Mills Road in Dartmouth, this Quaker meetinghouse was built in 1790 and has changed little since. It is a plain two-story, shingled building on a rubblestone foundation, with separate men's and women's entrances on the south side. Inside, exposed hand-hewn timber framing, unpainted pine benches, tiered \"high seats,\" a U-shaped balcony and movable partitions reflect Quaker worship and business practice. The 14-acre property was bought in 1706 and also holds a burying ground, a nineteenth-century privy, dry-laid stone walls and the footings of a carriage shed. Archaeological remains of the 1699 meetinghouse, the first in the Dartmouth area, may survive nearby. The site is significant for its architectural austerity and its integrity, and for the part Dartmouth Monthly Meeting played in local farming, town government and Quaker life from the seventeenth century through the twentieth. Many prominent early families are buried in the adjacent cemetery.","period_of_significance":"1790-1941","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Colonial / Georgian","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Described as excellently maintained and little altered since 1790; still in religious use, with minor insect damage and fire charring on the south wall noted.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:03.562849-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/20/7945/63794520/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/91000241.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91000241/f9e96a938b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91000241/f9e96a938b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DartmouthMA_ApponegansettMeetingHouse.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DartmouthMA_ApponegansettMeetingHouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794520","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apponegansett_Meeting_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4781665"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/bristol-county/apponegansett-meeting-house-91000241/"}