Quakers were in the Town of Saratoga as early as 1765 and
had erected a log Meeting House before the Revolution at or near this site.

  The present Meeting House was built in 1793. The building you see today is a modification of that structure: in 1857 the north end was reduced by nearly one length of the floor boards, some 10 or 12 feet. Square patches in the floor show where the three posts now used as porch columns once supported the “youths’ gallery.”  One of the present doors is doubtless in its original position, while the other was moved to be near it.


  Also in 1857, the shingled sides of the Meeting House were covered by the present clapboards, and a porch replaced the earlier steps and platform.  At a much later date, the porch floor was changed to concrete. The roof trusses appear to be the work of a shipwright rather than a house builder, perhaps reflecting the seafaring heritage of those early Quakers, many of whom had ties to Nantucket and New Bedford .


  In 2006, an addition for First Day School classrooms and other use was attached to the rear (west side) of the Meeting House.  It was designed for compatibility with the historic Meeting House.  And in 2007 we added indoor plumbing and accessibility ramps to our Meeting facilities.

            Saratoga Monthly Meeting is relatively small, but has been slowly growing and now has 21 adult members.  We meet most of the year in an historic one-room 1793 meetinghouse, without running water or plumbing.  In recent years the First Day School class met in an old trailer.

 

            Over time, the trailer simply wore out. Though at that point we were down to two families with children in the meeting community, we were clear that we needed a place for the First Day School.  We had some conversations about the possibility of adding onto our meetinghouse and began to look at various ideas, including raising the meetinghouse and building underneath it.  In early October 2004, one visiting Friend catalyzed our action by making a generous gift toward an addition.  Even with this, we were greatly concerned about being able to afford any such project.

 

            In late October that year we held an in-depth worship sharing session about our meetinghouse.  Our notes from that session summarized our thinking, expressing these key issues and concerns:

1.       The Meeting community is our center.  The community is far more important than any facility.

2.       This historical meeting house space and all the associated feelings about this place are very important to us.

3.       Our community is not complete without the children.  A complete community includes people of all ages.

4.       We need to find a way to make a comfortable place for the children.

5.       Several expressed that they do not want to see the meetinghouse building significantly altered.

6.       There is reluctance in our community to take on a heavy financial burden or to require substantially higher energy and attention to our facilities.

7.       Travel to the country in winter is quite uncomfortable for some.

8.       There is a sense among some that a more central location would help us better connect with the wider community.

9.       It is key to know ourselves as a community and to assure that we operate in harmony with our community values.

 

We then conducted a survey of members and active attenders, asking about priority wishes regarding an addition.  Twenty people responded.  From this we determined that our top priorities, to make the Meeting welcoming to adults and children alike, were:

1.       One, or preferably two, rooms for First Day School

2.       One or more bathrooms with working, “user-friendly” toilets

3.       A gathering room suitable for worship and other activities

4.       Comfortable heating

5.       A design compatible with our meetinghouse and setting.

 

After much prayerful discussion, our Meeting in July 2005 approved making an addition to our Meetinghouse for First Day School classrooms and working bathrooms and insulating the floor and ceiling of our historic meetinghouse.  This approval was made in the faith that we could find the money and contingent upon our raising funds over and above those needed for our operating budget.  The Meeting’s Finance Committee was charged with raising the required funds.

 

We asked members of our community to communicate their intent to support the building project and received generous support, bringing us to about 80% of our initially anticipated costs.  We considered the possibility of a mortgage and learned that, in every case we explored, a Meeting member would have to guarantee the loan.  Our Trustees decided we could borrow from members as necessary.

 

One of our members is a contractor and presented a proposal for the work.  In September, 2005, we entered into a contract for a 900-square-foot unfinished addition, without plumbing or paint, believing that we could add the plumbing later and that Meeting people could do the painting. This met our budgeted amount but left no room for contingencies.  Our completion target was early 2006.

 

In our State of the Meeting report for 2005 we said:

 

 “We are building an addition to our 200-year-old meeting house so that our children will have a welcoming space for First Day School. We have spent more than a year considering the wishes and priorities of our members and attenders and exploring various approaches, with active involvement of numerous individual Friends and of the Building & Grounds Committee, Trustees, Finance Committee, and Ministry & Counsel. We have now entered into a contract and broken ground, and are excited to be moving forward. We also feel some nervousness in this major undertaking, especially since we are just a small group of active members and attenders, and also since the contractor is one of our own members so we want everything to go smoothly for all concerned. Our First Day School group is also very small, but we were clear that we need the space for them. We have felt that until we have the new annex it will be hard to attract more children, so we are heartened by the recent arrival of another family whose faithful presence is a real joy and encouragement. We are now meeting in our winter quarters in a school building in town, with a separate room available for the First Day School, and we hope that when we move back to our beloved rural meeting house in the spring the new building will be nearing completion.”

 

            As is so often true with construction projects, there were a number of unforeseen obstacles to overcome.  In midstream we revised our construction contract, increasing the cost; this was both a difficult and tender process for all concerned.  Our operating budget for the Meeting, including loan repayments, has more than doubled.  We are hopeful that we can complete the project without excessive burden on the community.

 

The addition is yet to be completed but has been in use since September 2006.  The meeting community, young and old, rallied together to paint the addition inside and out. One positive effect of this effort is that the young people feel a sense of direct connection with and a proprietary interest in the space.

 

The addition is at the back of the meetinghouse.  It has its own entrance, since a direct entry from the meeting room would have been difficult and would have changed the character of the room.

We are all pleased with the way the addition harmonizes with our historic meetinghouse. The craftsmanship is first rate.  We will not consider plumbing or other amenities until we have paid off our loans and built back a modest building fund reserve.

All in all, we believe that making this addition to our space has had a very positive effect on our Meeting community.

 Our draft of the State of the Meeting Report for 2006 opens and closes with these paragraphs:

“On First Day we look around the room and are delighted to see so many more people than the 8 or 10 we typically used to have. We realize that this has been true each First Day for months now, and it brings light and hope to our hearts. The strengthened attendance may be connected at least indirectly with the new addition we are building onto our one-room meeting house. It is a great joy to us all that our First Day School now has its own space. The addition is not yet complete, but the children were able to start using their new room in the fall and they quickly made it their own, decorating the walls with pictures they drew about the topics they were discussing, and inviting us all to come see and share in their creativity. The sense of ownership that they feel for their space is heartwarming indeed. Best of all, they know that they are so important to us that we built this building for them. The construction process has been slower than we had expected, with many unforeseen bumps in the road, and it has increased our financial obligations significantly, but every week is a fresh affirmation that we were right to undertake this important project.

 

“We approach the coming year knowing that we still face some difficulties in the life of the Meeting, and some work to finish the building project. We pray for continued strength and love to meet these challenges, and we hope that the new vitality of the First Day gatherings will continue to encourage us and that our focus on the Meeting community will continue to light the way.”

              George Seiler    11-29-06