Rockingham Meeting House opens for season

Postcard of the Rockingham Meeting House. Photo provided

ROCKINGHAM, Vt. – The Rockingham Meeting House will open for the 2022 season on Saturday, May 28, 2022. Visitors are welcome daily through Indigenous People’s Day, from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Built in 1787, the meeting house remains substantially in its original form and is the oldest public building in Vermont that remains unchanged. It is a designated National Historic Landmark.

The meeting house served as both a place of worship and the town hall until 1869, when it was abandoned for several decades. In 1906, the building was restored to its current state – one of the earliest historic preservation projects in Vermont – leaving intact its king-post timber framing, finely detailed woodwork and its “pig pen” box pews. The building hosts an annual pilgrimage in August as part of the town’s “Old Home Days” celebrations.

Interior of the Rockingham Meeting House. Photo provided

The meeting house is owned by the town of Rockingham and operated as a museum, with skilled docents on hand to offer additional information about the architecture and history of the building. The adjacent cemetery, which is in use to this day, contains more than 1,000 graves and is a treasure trove of information about the lives and deaths of the town’s early settlers, as well as some of the finest gravestone art to be found in New England.

The meeting house is located just north of the village of Bellows Falls and Interstate 91 Exit 6, just off VT Route 103.

For additional information, email the Rockingham Historic Preservation Commission at clg@rockbf.org.

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