Colonial Meeting houses in New England

Choosing scenic locations for an autumn trip

I just got a message from an old friend up in New Hampshire and they just moved. They now live on Meetinghouse Road and I thought to myself that this is the third road by that name that I know of and how it might lead to a photography opportunity.

Many people ask me for scenic fall foliage recommendations and I figure you might like a bit of my process of looking for new places. Finding secret routes isn’t about falling down the rabbit hole but being open to the Art of getting lost (only a little lost).

Colonial Meeting Houses in New England

As soon as we started creating towns in colonial America, we started building colonial meeting houses which doubled as church and town meeting locations. Many are still standing today and towns sometimes named the road they sit on as Meetinghouse Road. So I opened Google Maps and started searching for roads named Meetinghouse Road and not having been there, I used google street view to virtually walk the road. In Sutton New Hampshire, you will find the South Sutton Meetinghouse on Meetinghouse Hill Road.

The Sutton New Hampshire meetinghouse on Meetinghouse Hill Road, View in my Gallery

Below you will see a small selection of roads with links to their google maps and when autumn rolls around I will check a few of them out but one sounds really interesting. I thought the three in Maine were the most interesting. The first is Meetinghouse Lane, in West Bath, Maine. But it appears to be a very short lane and has a cemetery on the corner. I have marked this one as a maybe to go visit.

The second one is in Freeport Maine (can we say shopping at LL Bean?) on Meetinghouse Road, Freeport, Maine. I have marked this one also as a maybe.

Now, this one on Old Meetinghouse Road, in Porter, Maine looks like a winner. Porter, Maine is in southwest Maine with Sebago Lake to the east, and Ossipee New Hampshire to the west. The area north of Porter Maine is very hilly with lots of small roads. (Hit the link and look at the Google map, very interesting geography)

Meetinghouse Road crosses through the middle of Black Pond. The road looks to be old pavement and maybe two lanes but very rundown. The image I captured from Google shows a little color in Sept 2013 but the best color will be in October.

BUT! Not all Meeting houses sit on Meeting House Road/Lane/Street

I did look and found a few that don’t follow the rules. The Old Round Church in Richmond Vermont sits instead on Round Church Road…(truth in advertising)