Update on 1816 Farmington Meetinghouse

by Judith Wellman

Thank you! On December 18-19, the meetinghouse was all wrapped up, in a large net, like a gift to the future. Thanks to all of you who helped raise funds and lent your moral support for this effort, as well as to the work of Mike Perkins, contractor, and Matthew Abate, engineer. This will keep pieces of the meetinghouse from blowing off into the road and also give the building some minimal protection from the elements, while we continue to work on its National Register nomination and on fund-raising.

We so grateful to all of you who came forward with financial help and warm thoughts. This could never have been done without you. You were truly an inspiration, and you have made a gift to the health of the world.

We are finishing work on the National Register nomination this month. This will be a nomination for the Farmington Quaker Crossroads District, incorporating several sites at the four corners, including the 1816 meetinghouse, the 1876 meetinghouse, the cemetery, and others. For a list of important people associated with this area, see the bottom of this newsletter.

Primary source evidence continues to accumulate about people and events related to both the 1816 and the 1876 meetinghouses. Charles Lenhart has done an extraordinary amount of research for this project, and Christopher Densmore, Curator of Friends Historical Library, has been immensely helpful. Barbara Shanahan has sent three historic photos of the meetinghouse, including one interior photo that has not been available earlier. She identified her great-great-grandfather Nichols as the white-bearded man in the black hat in the back row of one of the interior photographs. Thank you, Barbara!

Fund-raising continues. Special thanks to Eric Moon and to Canandaigua National Bank for their sales of the CD Christmas in the Finger Lakeson behalf of the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse. This is exactly the kind of creative grassroots effort that makes us all proud!

Ruth Naparsteck has come up with a similar project for the spring. She has offered sales of her books on Rochester history for $39.95 each (plus $3.95 s/h), Let Ruth know that you heard about this offer through this blog, and she will donate $10 per book to the Farmington Meetinghouse Fund.

The titles are: Rochester: A Pictorial History and Runnin' Crazy: A Portrait of the Genesee River. Books can be ordered directly from Ruth at: uramouse1@hotmail.com Total cost for both books plus shipping/handling: $87.80. Thank you, Ruth!

We will be submitting grant proposals for several major grants this spring, including:
  • Restore New York
  • Save America’s Treasures
  • Environmental Protection Fund
for major restoration and other funds for smaller pieces of the project.

Thanks to Peter Michael for national publicity through the Underground Railroad Free Press, November 2006. Thank you, Pete!

Upcoming event:
Frederick Douglass International Underground Railroad Conference from September 28 to 30, 2007 in Rochester, New York.

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