Book of the Week #21

A Space for Faith: The Colonial Meetinghouses of New England photographs by Paul Wainwright with essay by Peter Benes (Portsmouth, NH: Jetty House, 2009)

"When built in the 1700s, colonial meetinghouses were the center of both religious and civic life - concepts not at all separate in colonial New England. Paul Wainwright has collected a wealth of images of New England’s surviving colonial meetinghouses that go beyond mere documentation of what these buildings look like - they explore the feeling of "presence" that exists in them. An accompanying essay by noted colonial historian Peter Benes elaborates on the communities that built and used these meetinghouses, and traces a narrative rich in the history and architecture of New England." (from the publisher's website)

Paul Wainwright lives in Atkinson, New Hampshire and has included images of a dozen New Hampshire meetinghouses in this beautiful book.