Moving the Meetinghouse–Nov. 9

Posted on October 28, 2011 by meetinghouse

Moving the Meetinghouse

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July 30 Open house Photos

Posted on August 10, 2011 by admin

Here are a few photos of our lovely Open House and groundbreaking ceremony this weekend. Special thanks to Austin Steward, reincarnated by Dr. David Anderson, and to representatives from the Town of Farmington (Peter Ingalsbe, Deputy Supervisor; Tim Mickelson, Supervisor; and Michelle Finley, Clerk), to Barbara Popenhusen, Clerk, Trustees of Farmington Friends Meeting (which donated this land), and Tania Werbizsky, Canandaigua National Bank, Preservation League of New York State (which helped this project move forward with a bridge loan). We could not have done this without all of you!  Many thanks for helping to make this such a success!

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Christopher Densmore Open House

Posted on June 26, 2011 by admin

On June 25, the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse Museum was honored to welcome Christopher Densmore at the opening session of our 2011 open houses. Densmore, Archivist, Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore,  inspired an audience of more than fifty people with his talk, “Here at Farmington: Quaker Origins of Human Rights.”

Upcoming Open House Dates

July 30–”Farmington: Steps in Austin Steward’s Stride toward Freedom”

David Anderson, Chair, Rochester and Monroe County Freedom Trail Commission.

August 27– “Lucretia Mott, Quakers, and the   Early   Women’s Rights Movement.”

Carol Faulkner, History Department,  Syracuse University.

All Open Houses–with exhibits and tours–are held at Farmington Friends Meeting, 187 County Road 8, 12 a.m.-4:30 p.m., with talks at 2:00 p.m. and refreshments and conversation at 3:30. All talks are sponsored by the New York Council on the Humanities and are free and open to the public.

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The Stabilization Project Makes Great Progress

Posted on June 17, 2011 by admin

Have you ever experienced something miraculous yet inevitable, like the opening of a bud into flower? We have. So, at the end of a busy and exciting year, we are not at all surprised at the amazing things that have happened this year with the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse. Historically, a unique confluence of energies came together in the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse. Seneca leaders such as Seneca White came here to develop plans to save Seneca lands in western New York. Abolitionists and Underground Railroad activists such as Frederick Douglass spoke in this Meetinghouse. So did women’s rights advocates such as Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony.

Historic energies are bubbling up again. Most wonderfully, this Meetinghouse is—at last—well on its way toward final stabilization and eventual preservation. With the help of one of the country’s premier historic preservation firms (John G. Waite Associates), Wolfe Brothers Building Movers stabilized and enclosed the building. They will move the Meetinghouse next summer to a site across the road, still within the Farmington Quaker Crossroads Historic District, to be donated by the current Farmington Friends Meeting.

We are grateful to the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Foundation for working so hard to save this building. This year, we also formed a new not-for-profit organization, the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse, to work jointly with the Stanton Foundation. Continue reading →

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Farmington-Scipio Regional Meeting of Friends Provide $1500 grant

Posted on January 30, 2011 by admin

We have officially received, with grateful hearts, the $1500 grant from Farmington-Scipio Regional Meeting of Friends to develop an interpretive program for the Farmington Quaker Crossroads Historic District. Stay tuned! We are writing a grant proposal to the National Trust for Historic Preservation for a matching grant for this project. Many, many thanks to Farmington-Scipio for their endorsement of and help with this project.

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NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation awards matching grant to Elizabeth Cady Stanton Foundation

Posted on August 11, 2009 by admin

Hello Friends–

We are so pleased—absolutely delighted—to announce that the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Foundation, through NYS’s Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, has received a grant of $330,000 from New York State’s Environmental Protection Fund for this project. Now, we need to match this!

View award letter (Adobe pdf 1 page 42Kb)

We are still working on the remaining $11,800 to match our grant of $47,000 from the National Park Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program. Profound thanks to the Rochester Area Community Foundation, Canandaigua National Bank, and many, many generous private individuals for their contribution toward this goal.

With this money, we hope to put out bids very soon for stabilizing this building in place this fall.

Stay tuned!

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Office of Cultural Education grants provisional charter for 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse

Posted on June 2, 2009 by admin

Thanks to help from Alaine Espenscheid, we have now received our provisional certification (renewable after five years) for the new not-for-profit corporation called the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse. See the attachment to Alaine’s note (below) for our official letter.

Alaine will send this to the IRS so that we may be officially recognized for tax purposes as a 501c3 organization. This will be retroactive to May 18, 2009, and will allow us to accept donations as a charitable organization.

Congratulations and many, many thanks for all this hard work by so many people! Thank you, Alaine!

Best, Judy

Provisional Charter of 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse Museum
(Adobe pdf 5 pages 865Kb)

Minutes of NYS Board of Regents meeting granting Provisional Charter for 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse Museum.
(Adobe pdf 2 pages 37Kb) Continue reading →

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Matching grant from NY State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation

Posted on May 30, 2009 by admin

Contributed by Christopher Densmore, Curator Friends Historical Library

Hello Friends

Check out this excellent news from Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, through Fran and Gail Caracillo—$330,000 from our Environmental Protection Fund application from last year for the Meetinghouse!

  • Adobe pdfAward letter: from NY State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (1 page 50Kb)

Take two days to dance and celebrate. Then we will get to work raising matching funds! Thanks so much to the EPF review board, to SHPO, and to all of you who have contributed so much to make this happen! After OPRHP makes its own formal announcement, we can tell others about this.

ecs_epf_award

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Historical notes regarding Thomas McClintock

Posted on May 25, 2009 by admin

Contributed by Christopher Densmore, Curator Friends Historical Library

The Journal was a Hicksite Quaker publication in the 1870s and 1880s, edited by Joseph Gibbons and his daughter Phebe E. Gibbons (from Lampeter, now Bird-in-Hand, Lancaster County, PA). The Gibbons were actively involved in anti-slavery and the Underground Railroad for several generations, and their publication contains some interesting recollections of the anti-slavery times, plus news of Friends., like Joseph Dugdale, who had been active in the anti-slavery movement.

The issue of 3 Mo. 22, 1876, has an column of “Friendly Items” containing news of Quaker doings, including:

“In Philadelphia, on First-day morning lasst, 19th inst., Thomas McClintock died in his 84th year. Being at the foot of the stairs he fell in an apopletic fit and expired.

He was not originally a member among Friends, but was was united with them early in life. He learned the drug business with a well known Friend in t he southern part of our city, and I believe was a fellow apprentice of the late Henry M. Zollikoffer, who also became a member though convincement. He married Mary Ann Wilson (who survives him,) daughter of Charles Wilson, a well esteemed Friend. At the time of the separation, he took an active interest in matters then in progress. As he resided then, and for some years later at Fifth and Callowhill Streets, he was a member of Green street Monthly Meeting, but about 1837-7, removed to Waterloo, NY., and became a member of Junius meeting where his ministry was acknowleged, and I think he was at one time clerk of Genesee Yearly Meeting. Continue reading →

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Group works to save 1816 Farmington building

Posted on May 24, 2009 by admin

JAMES GOODMAN · STAFF WRITER · MAY 24, 2009
This article originally ran in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Passers-by might not realize the importance of the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse, which now looks like a barn hit by a hurricane.

But Judith Wellman, a historian who has spearheaded efforts to save this meetinghouse in north Farmington, Ontario County, says that the building played such an important role in struggles for equal rights that it must be saved.

“It doesn’t look so good now, but you will be proud when it is really restored,” said Wellman, who lives in Fulton,Oswego County, and is working with a small group of residents from the Farmington area on a fundraising plan.

Many crusaders for justice, including Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, gathered there during the 19th century.

“It is the most important building in the town of Farmington,” said Helen Kirker, a Farmington native who lives in the Ontario County town of Seneca and who has been involved in meetinghouse restoration efforts. Continue reading →

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