Religious Spaces: Our Vanishing Landmarks

Religious Spaces: Our Vanishing Landmarks is a 1½-day conference of thirteen lectures on New England meetinghouses, churches, and other religious spaces of all denominations in the period 1722 through 1865. The conference opens Friday evening with a passionate appeal from preservationists and photographers discussing the fate, beauty, and majesty of early survivals of religious spaces. It continues Saturday morning and afternoon with presentations on music, graffiti, and icons in public religious spaces; on the continuing competition of traditional Catholics as well as local English and American religious sects; and on the retention of transatlantic architectural memory and the prefabrication of joinery within New England. The conference concludes with talks on the disestablishment movement in New England and the effect of shifting populations. An optional field trip to tour the 1739 Pelham meetinghouse and other structures will be offered. Books on meetinghouses and other publications will be available for purchase; selected papers from this conference will be published by the Dublin Seminar.