The Forty Fort Meeting House – a two-story, wooden structure on River Street – is considered the region’s oldest house of worship. Built by the area’s early settlers from Connecticut, it has withstood periods of neglect and a pounding from 1972’s Agnes flood.

Its bicentennial will be marked beginning Sept. 30 with a weeklong series of activities, including a church service, gala dinner and public tours showing off the house’s architectural charms.

“It’s a gem and we want to teach about it,” said Betsy Bell Condron, Kingston, who is spearheading the festivities. She and more than 50 other volunteers make up the bicentennial committee.

The group’s still-evolving schedule of events can be monitored at www.fortyfortmeetinghouse.org. Planners intend to track down couples whose marriage ceremonies were performed at the meeting house, urging them to share their wedding day memories for an archive and possibly return for a group portrait.

Restoration costly

Beyond the revelry, Condron and her group must focus on fundraising to pay for the building’s repair and long-term upkeep – a fact made evident to them only a few months ago.

Engineers who studied soil samples determined that the stone foundation needs to be replaced. That discovery means a previously scheduled restoration project will cost at least $20,000 more than originally estimated, said Lillian Smith, chairwoman of the Forty Fort Meeting House Preservation Committee.

“We were not prepared to put in an 8-foot basement with a concrete floor,” she said. “And that’s increasing the cost of the first phase by at least 12 percent.”

Wolfe House and Building Movers, a Reading-area company, has been hired to shore up the house and then excavate to make space for a deeper, sturdier foundation. The work is set to begin next week, said Jim Bell, a senior associate with the Wilkes-Barre architectural firm of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson.

The firm, which is donating its services, will help coordinate the foundation work and other critical fixes this year, Bell said. He estimated the basement job will be completed in six to eight weeks.

One of the gates leading to the Forty Fort Cemetery, where the meeting house is located, will be barricaded during the project. Likewise, tours of the building’s interior will be temporarily suspended.

Extra tour guides, however, are being recruited to help during bicentennial week. Once trained, these costumed volunteers will be able to spew facts about the New England-style structure’s origin, uses and starkly elegant design.

“If you’ve been in it, it’s like a piece of furniture,” Bell said. “It’s just beautifully handcrafted and kind of delicate.”

Eying lofty goals

First known as Union Chapel, the 1807 building presumably took its name because the project was a joint effort of two religious denominations. The area’s early Methodists and Congregationalists (later called Presbyterians) each used the space for their separate worship services.

Its unadorned interior includes rows of pews, each fashioned from native pine and capped on both ends with paneled doors. Regular worshippers paid for prime, first-floor seats. Guests and less-affluent church members gathered in a second-floor gallery.

An elevated pulpit, accessible by climbing about 12 steps, dominates one wall.

“The height of the pulpit helped to carry the minister’s voice and drew the attention of the congregation,” states a training manual handed out to new tour guides. “The large window (directly behind the pulpit) also drew their attention, illuminating the minister and reminding them of God’s power and light.”

Regular worship services here ended after 30 years, according to historical records.

Settlers probably then used the building for several years as a kind of town hall, or gathering spot, hence its better-known name as the Forty Fort Meeting House. It was largely abandoned in the decades after.

Yet to this day, “there’s a spirituality to it that’s hard to define,” said Condron, 79. “You can sit in those pews and, no matter what your religious beliefs, you have a deeper feeling for what you came from.”

In 1988 the meeting house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Today the landmark near Wyoming Avenue is believed to be among the five oldest structures standing in the Wyoming Valley.

The structure belongs to the Forty Fort Cemetery Association, a group chartered in 1860. A separate group – the meeting house preservation committee – was formed in the early 1990s, charged with ensuring the integrity of the old building.

An inspection earlier this decade by John Milner Architects Inc., Chadds Ford, uncovered a host of structural and cosmetic flaws. The firm’s 2003 report set the price tag for repairs at about $266,000.

Investing in the future

Since launching a campaign in 2005, the preservation committee has succeeded in collecting about $253,000.

But, because of rising building costs and unforeseen problems with the house’s subterranean base, its members aim to raise another $200,000, Smith said. A portion of that money will be invested.

“We have to start an endowment for this building so that, whatever happens in the future, there will be monies there,” said Smith, of Dallas. “We just can’t keep turning back to the public every 10 years, telling them it’s about to go under.”

A grant writer who recently joined the effort will try to secure state and federal funds.

In the meantime, the bicentennial might draw attention to the building’s significant needs and spur contributions.

Corporate sponsors will be sought for the Oct. 6 gala dinner at Wyoming Seminary’s Lower School in Forty Fort, said Tony Brooks, bicentennial committee member. Volunteers hope to compile meeting house photographs and other information in a keepsake book. If all goes as planned, the building will gets its much-needed makeover.

And history buffs, newlyweds and other event-goers will be able to enjoy the Forty Fort Meeting House’s simple elegance for another two centuries or so.

Said Condron: “In order to have the tangible reminder of our history, we have to preserve the building – not just the memory of it.”

GET INVOLVED

• Donate to preservation project. Checks should be made payable to the Forty Fort Meeting House Preservation Fund. Mail c/o the Forty Fort Cemetery Association Office, 20 River St., Forty Fort, PA 18704.

• Keep updated on bicentennial events. Go to www.fortyfortmeetinghouse.org.

• Married at meeting house? Couples wed at the site are asked to supply information for a newly created archive. Call 868-3485.

• Provide services for bicentennial. Businesses willing to donate goods or services should call the cemetery office at 287-5214.

• Provide services for preservation. Companies able to donate construction-related services, such as sidewalk installation or hauling, should call 287-5214.

• Volunteer as a tour guide. Call 287-5214.

©The Times Leader 2007