Charlotte Meeting House

[3] In 1952, the Shelburne Museum dismantled the building and moved it to its grounds, finding replacements for missing or damaged elements, including the belfry, pews, and pulpit, in an abandoned church in Milton, Vermont.

[1] The interior plaster walls were painted in tones of white and grey to resemble paneled woodwork (see Trompe-l'œil).

[3] The structure reflects the stylistic tendencies established in the last decade of the 18th century when the church plan became the standard on which meeting houses were designed.

[1] Puritans, and later Congregationalists, traditionally constructed their meeting houses on a square or rectangular plan with hipped roofs, a separate bell tower, and the entrance and pulpit situated on the long sides of the building.

[1] The Meeting House's triangular pediment, accented with cornice moldings, reflects the pervasiveness of Greek Revival architecture in the mid-nineteenth century.