NHS/The Seventh Day Baptist Meeting House

Welcome to the Seventh Day Baptist
Meeting House

In the 1660s, seven members of the First Baptist Church of Newport became convinced that the Ten Commandments should be obeyed literally, and began to observe the Sabbath on Saturday, the seventh day of the week. In 1671, they withdrew, formed the Seventh Day Baptist Church, and chose William Hiscox as their first pastor. The freedom to act on doctrinal differences such as these was possible in Rhode Island because religious toleration had formed the foundation for this unusual New England colony. The Seventh Day Baptists built a small meeting house on Barney Street sometime before 1712. By 1729, however, they had outgrown this home, and, it is believed, they employed Richard Munday, fresh from completing Newport's Trinity Church in 1726, to design a new building for them. Although no documentary evidence survives of Munday's involvement, the design and details of the Seventh Day Baptist Meeting House are so similar to Trinity Church as to make it almost certain.
The new building, erected in 1730, was laid out in the "meeting house plan," typical of many colonial churches in the 17th century. The members of these churches were intent on purifying the excesses of the Church of England and the Catholic Church, and their reforming zeal was also directed at church architecture. The meeting house plan avoided any suggestion of the crucifix, the heart of the floorplan of the Catholic churches and cathedrals of Europe.
	Instead, the Seventh Day Baptists built a simple, almost square building that looked like a modest house from the outside. The door was on the long side of the building and the pulpit was on the opposite wall facing the door. The room was filled with box pews. Two aisles down either side completed the symmetry of the floorplan. NHS P1580
Munday's building was simple in plan, but elaborate in the detail and virtuostic in the execution of the woodworking. Complex moldings, raised bolection paneling, and beautifully hand carved balusters on the staircase leading to the wineglass pulpit all attest not only to Munday's skill but to the craftsmanship of his workmen. The Seventh Day Baptist congregation flourished in Newport until the Revolution, when most of the members scattered to avoid the British occupation. Many relocated to Westerly, Rhode Island, a stronghold of the Seventh Day Baptists since 1676, when Rev. William Hiscox, the pastor at Newport, first made contact with settlers in that area. In 1840, the Seventh Day Baptists rented their meeting house to the Fourth Baptist Church for their public meetings, and from 1864 to 1869, the meeting house was used by the Shiloh Baptist Church, an African-American Congregation. The Seventh Day Baptist Meeting House was sold to the Newport Historical Society in 1884, and the building became the first permanent headquarters and exhibit facility of the Society since its founding in 1854. The Society immediately restored the building under the supervision of James Southwick and Newport architect, George Champlin Mason, Jr. The Society, however, was concerned about the building's location near the blacksmith and paint shops surrounding it. In 1887, the building was moved to a site on Touro Street. In 1889, a small addition was added to the rear of the building to house the Newport Natural History Society, and in 1902 another addition was attached to the front of the building.
With more space, the Society received so many donations of historic material that within ten years it had once again outgrown its space. In 1915, the Seventh Day Baptist Meeting House was moved once again to the back of the lot and a three-story brick addition was placed between it and the 1902 building. At that time the meeting house was encased in brick to "fireproof" the building. The Seventh Day Baptist Meeting House has remained the headquarters building of the Newport Historical Society ever since.
Hours: Tuesday through Friday 9:30 am - 4:30 pm, Saturday 9:30 am - 12:00 noon. Tours are by appointment only. The Seventh Day Baptist Meeting House is attached to the Headquarters of the Newport Historical Society, 82 Touro Street, Newport, RI. Call (401) 846-0813 for more information.
Source: "Entering Into Covenant: The History of Seventh Day Baptists in Newport," by Don A. Sanford, Newport History: the Quarterly Journal of the Newport Historical Society, vol. 66, part 1, no. 226, Summer 1994.