The historic brick Meeting House building, home of the restoration business and of the owner and his family, was completed in 1833 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The first Meeting House Society was convened in Quechee in 1832 with the express intent to “construct an edifice for those Congregationalists known as Orthodox”. The Society raised funds and oversaw the construction of the post and beam brick-clad house of worship, completed a year later.
In 1871, dissension in the congregation forced the sale of the structure to the town, and it became a grade school. The conversion was undertaken by Boston architect Thomas Silloway who designed the current 1859 Vermont State House in Montpelier, the 1873 Congregational Church, and the Windsor Country Courthouse on the Green in Woodstock. Grades 1-12 were taught in three classrooms on the first floor, while the second floor was open with a stage on the south end. The last class graduated in 1920.
Over the next thirty-nine years, Waterman’s grocery store operated on the first floor, while the auditorium was used as a village hall (Hartford Town Meetings were held upstairs every other year for some time), a roller skating rink, a movie house, and basketball court. In the 1960’s, the second floor held theatrical events staged by the Green Mountain Guild Players, and Bess Armstrong and Meryl Streep performed in the building.
Currently, the historic Meeting House has the restoration studio and workshop on the first floor. The upper portion of the building has been converted into a two-story townhouse, featured in HGTV episodes of “Re-Zoned” and “Building Character”, and has been the subject of numerous news articles.
