ROCKINGHAM — The 109th annual pilgrimage to the Rockingham Meeting House will take place Sunday, Aug. 2, beginning with a picnic at noon at the historic landmark structure.
This year's pilgrimage includes musical presentations by resident Erik Johansson and the Main Street Arts String Band.
Residents are asked to bring along their own picnics, or they can enjoy hamburgers and hot dogs cooked on site by Lisai's, before the main program. The band will provide background music during the picnic. In case of rain, the band will set up inside.
The presentation by Johansson, “Precious Memories: Images for Old Home Days,” will include singing to both a harp and a “rocking melodium” a unique, vintage instrument that fills the Meeting House with its traditional sounds.
He will lead some selections as a singalong, including the state song “These Green Mountains” and “America the Beautiful.”
Johansson, a member of the Rockingham Meeting House Association's executive board, will also recite poetry.
Built in 1787, the Rockingham Meeting House was the first church and meeting house in town. It was used for many years for both purposes, but as the population centers gravitated to Bellows Falls and Saxtons River, it fell into disrepair.
It was restored in 1907, and the first pilgrimage included a large gathering of local residents who brought picnic lunches and enjoyed a variety of activities and speeches for the building's rededication.
Those attending the pilgrimage annually have the opportunity to enjoy both the building and historic cemetery as well. From the building's brochure:
“Much of what stands today is original fabric from the 18th century: king-post timber framing, woodworking details of the exterior, many glass panes in the twenty-over-twenty windows, interior plaster work, and most of the material of the 'pig pen' box pews.
“The pulpit was reconstructed in 1906, but the sounding board above it is original. In size and austerity, the Meeting House is very much a Puritan building of a style already considered old-fashioned in more urban parts of New England when it was built. The elegant Georgian details, however, relieve the austerity.
“The surrounding burial ground contains over one thousand graves, the oldest dating from around 1776, with some of the finest gravestone art found in New England. The nearby hearse shed and burial vault served the needs of the graveyard.”