ATHENS — The Athens Brick Meetinghouse turns 200 this year and, to celebrate this bicentennial, the Athens Historic Preservation Society will host a birthday party on Saturday, Sept. 23, starting at 1 p.m. Everyone is invited.
Friends, neighbors, and history enthusiasts will gather on the Meetinghouse Common starting at 1 p.m. After some music and light refreshments, there will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony followed by speakers and presentations. More music, a barbecue, birthday cake and ice cream, and plenty of fun and games will follow outside on the Common.
The Brick Meetinghouse has been closed to the public for the past few years due to structural issues. During the past year, a stabilization project has addressed the most significant issues causing concern about safety in the building.
Town funds, along with a $20,000 grant from the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation and a generous grant from the Windham Foundation, enabled this work to proceed. In addition, a grant from the Crosby-Gannett Fund and many generous donations from the public to the Athens Historic Preservation Society helped make this effort possible.
This day of celebration will be the first opportunity for the public to see the results of this restoration work.
The Meetinghouse is historically significant to the Windham County region, and particularly the other 12 towns - Grafton, Rockingham, Townshend, Londonderry, Weston, Chester, Acton, Springfield, Landgrove, Windham, Putney, and Mt. Holly - which constituted the “Old Athens Circuit.”
Circuit preachers from Athens traveled out to these 12 towns to perform religious services. Quarterly meetings with the Methodist congregants from these towns often lasted two days at the Athens Meetinghouse, which came to be known as the “Mother Church.”