Meetinghouse...

During the 17th century almost every Massachusetts settlement included a meetinghouse which was built by the Puritan settlers as a place for conducting religious and civil meetings. Today not a single one of these locally important buildings exists in its original form.

In 1985 a film production company, NightOwl Productions, was preparing to make a docu-drama for public television and motion picture release. The film titled, "Three Sovereigns for Sarah," told the story of Sarah Cloyce, who lived in Salem Village in 1692. Cloyce and her two sisters Rebecca Nurse and Mary Esty were accused of practicing witchcraft and of afflicting others in the village. Though Cloyce escaped execution, her two sisters were hanged for the purported crime, following their trials before a special Court of Oyer and Terminer.

As much of the 1692 witchcraft proceedings took place in the Salem Village Meetinghouse, and as there was no authentic structure available to film these critical and dramatic scenes, screen writer and producer Victor Pisano asked Richard Trask, historical consultant to the movie and Nurse Homestead curator, to research the original Salem Village Meetinghouse so the production company could build a reproduction of it for use in the film. The resulting replica structure was built on the Nurse Homestead property, and used extensively in the filmmaking which starred Academy Award winner Venessa Redgrave as Sarah Cloyce.

Following the making of the movie, the building was donated to the Nurse Homestead, and is now used in conjunction with this site for the interpretation of 17th century meetinghouses and to tell the story of the 1692 Salem Village witchcraft outbreak. Though much of the building's fabrication is the result of educated guess work based on original records and study of three partially surviving meetinghouses, the general visual characteristics of this reproduction building would have been very familiar to the inhabitants of 1692 Salem Village.

In November 1672, the local clerk recorded in the Salem Village record book, "Voted that we will build a meeting House of 34 foot length, 28 foot broad and 16 foot between jointes." The meetinghouse frame was composed of massive oak and of post and beam construction. The roofing frame was exposed to reveal two horizontal summer beams, each supported by a center king post, with elegant curved truss support beams. Besides providing labor to assist the carpenters, the villagers were assessed money or its equivalent in butter or wheat to help pay for materials. Plain or glassless windows were voted to be used. Salem Town donated their old pulpit and it was from this elevated position that the people would hear their ministers preach.

The Puritan meetinghouse was devoid of any outwardly religious symbols. The high pulpit, visible to all, was the focal point within the building. Above it was located the sounding board canopy allowing the minister's voice to better resonate. On a cushion on the pulpit desk rested the Holy Bible.

The congregation was seated, not according to family units, but with women seated on the east side and the men on the west. The oldest inhabitants were seated near the front, together with the church deacons followed by governmental and military officials, and then those who contributed greatest to the parish support.

In April 1992, a new audio-visual sound, light and sight program, "The Meetinghouse in Salem Village," premiered at the Nurse Homestead reproduction meetinghouse. The program explains the role of the meetinghouse in Puritan society and recounts the story of the 1692 witchcraft outbreak, including various testimonies given. The 15-minute audio-visual program has become a regular feature of tours at the Nurse Homestead. Fabrication of the multi-media program was accomplished in-house, with assistance from the Danvers Arts Council. Those who assisted in putting together the text, photography, lighting, audio recording, switching etc. were Rob Clemenzi, Curtis White, Henry Rutkowski, Richard Gagnon and Richard Trask. The beautiful oak communion table was fabricated by David Taylor. A small display within the meetinghouse includes several props and costumes used in the movie production, Three Sovereigns for Sarah.