Meeting house

[5] The colonial meeting house in America was typically the first public building built as new villages sprang up.A meeting-house had a dual purpose as a place of worship and for public discourse, but sometimes only for "...the service of God.[8] Most communities in modern New England still have active meetinghouses, which are popular points of assembly for town meeting days and other events.The nonconformist meeting houses generally do not have steeples, with the term "steeplehouses" referring to traditional or establishment religious buildings.[9] Christian denominations that use the term "meeting house" to refer to the building in which they hold their worship include: In England, a meeting house is distinguished from a church or cathedral by being a place of worship for dissenters or nonconformists.
The Town House of the small Vermont town of Marlboro was built in 1822 to be used for Town Meetings, which had previously been held in private homes. It is still in use today. Nearby is an example of a religious building called a "meeting house", the Marlboro Meeting House Congregational Church.
Old Town Friends Meetinghouse in Baltimore
Buckingham Friends Meeting House in Pennsylvania
Sheep-pen pews, Old Ship Meeting house , Hingham, Massachusetts , ca. 1880
A meetinghouse of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Uruguaiana , Brazil, used for weekly services
WharenuiBombing of Tokyo (10 March 1945)VermontMarlboroNonconformistchurchchapelMethodismchurch housesitinerant preachersBaltimorecolonial meeting houseseparation of church and state in the United Statesseat of local governmentNew EnglandBuckingham Friends Meeting HouseOld Ship Meeting houseHingham, Massachusettsmeetinghouse of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsUruguaianaAnabaptistMennoniteCongregational churchesmouth-housesChristadelphiansThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsMormonsMeetinghouseweekly worship servicesLDS templeReligious Society of FriendsFriends meeting housesSpiritual ChristiansUnitarian congregationsUnification ChurchdissentersnonconformistsMoot hallMerriam-Webster DictionaryOxford English DictionaryHistoric EnglandCentury DictionaryLudlow, Daniel HEncyclopedia of MormonismMacmillan PublishingEnsignLDS Church