History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

CHAPTER VI.
NEW MEETING-HOUSE.
A New Mee ting- MoRE tliaii sevGiit}^ years had passed since
House under
Discussion.
tliG secoiid meeting-liousG had been erected.
• t-j ^ itttt ^
it was becoming old and shaky, and was,
moreover, altogether too small to accommodate the large
and increasing congregation. Every year it was found
necessary to expend considerable money in repairs,' but
not enough seems to have been done to arrest the hand of
decay, and the building was becoming more and more dilapidated.
The question of building a new meeting-house
was in agitation several years before definite action was
taken. It was first brought forward in town-meeting in
March, 173|. As usual there was a conflict of opinion on
the subject. A disagreement concerning the location of the
building seems to have been developed before the matter
was presented to the town.
A Decision to Build.
The first vote upou it declared " that When
they did Build a Meetting House; it Should
be Set on the Meetting Hill ; as Near as it Can be Conveniently
to the Presentt Meetting House." Undoubtedly
this division of sentiment delayed the work, for no more is
heard about it till the latter part of 1735. In November of
that year, a vote was '
' passed in the affirmative by a very
great majority," to "build a Meeting House, Get the timber,
fraim it, Raise and Cover it, by the End of y® next
Summer." In the same vote it was provided that the house
should be "about seventy foot long and about forty-six or
fortj^-eight foot in weadth, with a Steeple or Bell Coney
1 The boys delighted in making targets both of the meeting-house and schoolhouse,
and scarcely a year passed when the town was not called upon to expend,
sometimes as much as a pound to replace broken glass in these buildings.
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