Friends of the Old Ship Meeting House

Hingham, Massachusetts


WE INVITE YOU TO BE A FRIEND OF THE OLD SHIP MEETING HOUSE



Old Ship's architectural significance has been recognized for more than 200 years. Built by local farmers in 1681, it is the oldest wooden building in continuing ecclesiastical use in North America, and the only surviving 17th century Meeting House in America.

“I do believe that the Old Ship is the most important 17th century building in English or Dutch America. It is also one of the few American buildings of any period that has real international importance.” (John Coolidge, Fogg Art Museum to Edgar T.P. Walker, Hingham designer of 1930 restoration, November 8, 1961, quoted in Historic Structure Report (2007)).

The Meeting House, with its celebrated open timber frame, has been painstakingly maintained and preserved by the First Parish Church with the strong support of the Hingham community for which it stands as a living symbol of the town’s heritage, and is revered as a participant in and witness to American history. Hingham’s most valuable and historically significant structure, the Old Ship Meeting House has been a National Historic Landmark since 1962. It continues to serve not only as a gathering place for its parishioners, but for the entire community which - as did the early settlers- frequently attends civic and cultural events there.

375th Anniversary: A Tribute to Hingham's Early Settlers

Saturday January 23, 2010: Old Ship Meeting House, 7 p.m.

“A Tribute to Hingham’s Early Settlers, Their Descendents and Those Who are Preserving Historic Homes and Buildings from the Early Settlement to the Colonial Period" - a film by Jeff Spencer will tell the story of the colonists who established the town and whose sons and grandsons built a meeting house that still stands today.

Reception immediately following in the Old Ship Parish House, 107 Main St.

The Friends of the Old Ship Meeting House invite you to display pictures and artifacts from your historic home or family in the Parish House; for information or to arrange a display, contact oldshipfriends@gmail.com or call the Old Ship office (781-749-1679).

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Old Ship's great open-timbered roof, patterned on the English Gothic churches of the Middle Ages

It is the Friends’ mission to preserve Old Ship so that those who come after us can enjoy, take pride in, and learn from this historic structure that has meaning for us all.