Quakers need help to restore historic meetinghouse Fundraising goal is to raise $500,000 in five years for repairs BY LINDA DeNICOLA Staff Writer SHREWSBURY - With the first phase of restoration work completed on the Shrewsbury Quaker Meetinghouse in the historic Four Corners section of Shrewsbury, the Monmouth County Historical Commission has given Shrewsbury Quakers a $4,180 grant to fund the second repair phase in 2007. Gordon Clark, a Manalapan resident and a member of the Shrewsbury Friends, said the Shrewsbury Monthly Meeting, Religious Society of Friends, was notified by the county agency on Jan. 24 that it would provide a dollar-for-dollar matching grant to help cover the cost of repairing two unique 48-pane north-side windows, and two non-functional brick chimneys. Clark explained that this is the first time the Meeting has applied for a matching grant from the Monmouth County Historical Commission. The commission makes grants every year to owners of historic buildings in Monmouth County to help fund structural repairs to historic building exteriors. "Estimates for repair of the chimneys start at $7,000 to repaint the bricks and replace the roof flashing around each. To repair the two large windows, including replacing broken antique window glass and repair damaged wood frames and sills, is estimated to cost a minimum of $7,400," he said. Historic restoration specialist Ira Matthews III (inset) is restoring the soffits, fascia and rake boards on the exterior of the Shrewsbury Quaker Meetinghouse. Ira Matthews III of Farmingdale, a historic restoration specialist, last month finished repairing the cornices and rake boards of the meeting house, the first of the critical items of repair and restoration that need to be done to the meetinghouse, which was completed by Quakers in 1816 after a previous meetinghouse burned down, Clark said. Clark explained that the Meeting hired Matthews to repair or replace the soffits, fascia boards and cornices of the roof, at a cost exceeding $20,000. The funds were raised from the membership, fundraising events and donations from community members, including two anonymous gifts of $5,000 each. "The Meeting contracted with Matthews because of his extensive experience in performing high-quality, historically accurate and detailed repairs to historic structures. Matthews and his father, Ira Matthews II (now retired), did the work to repair the clock steeple of Christ Episcopal Church, across Sycamore Avenue from the meetinghouse," he said. Long-range plans for further restoration include repairing or reconstructing the other windows in the meetinghouse and installing storm windows, repairing the siding with new cedar shingles, repairing the plaster and repainting in the West Room, adding gutters and leaders to the roof, and eventually repairing the mechanism that made the wall between the east and west rooms retract. To fund the needed restoration work, the Meeting is commencing a fundraising campaign, with the goal to raise $500,000 within five years. The Quakers need additional help to preserve the building and the history that surrounds it, a history that goes all the way back to 1665, when Friends from Long Island, Rhode Island and Cape Cod moved to Shrewsbury and began gathering in homes for worship. The settlement at Shrewsbury incorporated as Shrewsbury Township in 1667. The Shrewsbury Friends built their first meetinghouse in 1672. It was most likely located in what is now Little Silver, near the train station. The Shrewsbury group is the oldest continuing Religious Society of Friends in the state, but their meetinghouse is not the oldest in the state. The one in Cape May County is older and smaller, a single-room structure with facing benches. The Shrewsbury Meetinghouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1940. On the first floor of the present building is the fellowship room, or east room, where there is a kitchen, small classroom and a small library. On the other side of a paneled wall made of bog pines is the west room, or the worship room, with facing benches. Clark said during an open house last year that he has been working on the meetinghouse as the building and grounds supervisor and has fallen in love with its history. "I've discovered things like the carved initials of people who were sitting on the benches way back in 1617 and 1618. In 1808-1818 there was a school here." He explained that the architecture reflects Quaker practice and beliefs in simplicity and quality. They did not paint their buildings; it was considered an adornment. "They try to free themselves from a reliance on things and they believe that there is that of God in everyone," he explained. "If you accept that, you have to treat everyone as equals." Inside the worship room the facing benches are of a simple, functional design, as are the stairways. Clark said the facing benches were used for elders, visiting speakers, preachers and visiting ministers. He explained that preachers are not registered ministers. "They are people who speak well and people want to listen to them," he said. He explained that the benches can be reconfigured. "Quakers make what they have work for them. They don't go out and buy new," he said. Also in the worship room is an unusual window. It is 24 panes over 24 panes, of which 30 percent are original handblown glass, Clark said. One of the most interesting architectural features of the building is the wall of wooden divider panels. These panels came down for business meetings and were pulled back up for worship services. They were designed to provide a safe environment for women to speak out. Clark explained that at one time women were prohibited from speaking in public and were afraid to do so. The Quaker elders wanted to provide a safe place for women to learn to speak in public, so they devised an elaborate pulley system that drew the panels up into the attic for the worship service but came down for business meetings. "There were also two doors on the outside so that the women could enter into their own room by a separate door," he said. "The women also had two stoves, instead of just one in the men's area, so that they could cook on one." He said engineering drawings have been done of the pulley system. "There's a wooden winch in the attic and a large wheel and axle that turned and wound the ropes that pulled the walls up into the attic," he said. He also pointed out that the door between the two rooms does not have a handle because it rises into the panel above it. Clark said the rope pulley system that moves the wall hasn't worked since a fire in 1968 damaged the panels and they had to be turned inside out. The wall remains down. "It's an absolutely amazing technological thing to have done. The drive to provide equality for women made them go against their simplicity," he said, adding, "Sometimes, I imagine the excitement that the women must have felt when they realized that they had their own space where they could learn to speak out." According to the history of the Friends in Shrewsbury, the corner property was purchased in 1689 from John Lippencott, who is buried at the site. There may be Quakers buried beyond the back fence on the neighbor's property, but since they didn't use gravestones in the very beginning, there are no markers. In 1697, Abigail Lippencott freed her family's slaves just prior to her death. As other Friends in Shrewsbury freed their slaves, a fairly large free black community developed in the township. In 1757, one of the Friends, John Wardell, was disowned for buying a slave, and eventually they decided to not conduct business with slave owners. One of the not-so-prominent features of the meetinghouse is the trap door in the floor of the west room. There is speculation that slaves were hidden under it as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Clark says that is probably not true, because the railroad passed west and north of Shrewsbury. Oral history also suggests that perhaps individuals may have been sheltered there for assimilation into the fairly large community of free blacks in the area. Friends were advised by their Meetings to train their freed slaves in useful trades and to provide for the care of those who were unable to take care of themselves. The Shrewsbury Meeting began disowning slave-owning members 106 years prior to the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The Quaker movement began during the middle of the 17th century in England. It was a time of religious tension, and a man named George Fox was not satisfied with what he was being taught. Fox came to Shrewsbury when the territory became British in 1672. Quaker colonies were strung out across the Northeast and grew during the 19th century. While the Quaker Meetinghouse is located in Shrewsbury, their membership comes from all over Monmouth County. For more information or to arrange to make a donation, call Clark at (732) 446-4226, or the meetinghouse at (732) 741-4138 and leave a message, or send an inquiry to Gordon Clark, c/o Shrewsbury Monthly Meeting, P.O. Box 92, Shrewsbury, NJ 07702.