The Clarke Street Meeting House (also known as the Second Congregational Church Newport County or Central Baptist Church) is an historic former meeting house and

Reformed Reform is beneficial change Reform may also refer to: Media * ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang * Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group * ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine *''Reforme'' ("Reforms"), initial name of the ...

Christian church building at 13-17 Clarke Street in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

. Built in 1735, the structure is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

History

The meeting house was built in 1735 and served as a worship place for the Second Congregational Church, originally a

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

congregation. From 1755 to 1786,

Ezra Stiles Ezra Stiles ( – May 12, 1795) was an American educator, academic, Congregationalist minister, theologian, and author. He is noted as the seventh president of Yale College (1778–1795) and one of the founders of Brown University. According ...

, a well-known minister who later became president of

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, pastored the church and lived in the

Ezra Stiles House The Ezra Stiles House is an historic house at 14 Clarke Street in Newport, Rhode Island. It is a large -story wood-frame structure, five bays wide, with a gambrel roof and two large interior brick chimneys, built in 1756. Originally built facing ...

across the street. During the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, British forces occupied the meeting house and minister's house for use as a barracks and hospital from 1776 to 1779. After the war, a committee of Second Church members, including William Ellery, Henry Marchant, Robert Stevens and William Channing wrote to

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

in Europe requesting that he contact Reformed congregations there for assistance in repairing the church due to the British army's damage to the building. Adams responded that he would be unable to help because of differences in European attitudes toward soliciting for funds. Regardless of the difficulties, the building was extensively repaired in 1785. The congregation later left the building and merged with Newport's First Congregational Church to become United Congregational Church to which the building was sold in 1835. In 1847 the Central Baptist Society, which broke off from the

Second Baptist Church in Newport The United Baptist Church, John Clarke Memorial (previously known as the First Baptist Church in Newport, Second Baptist Church in Newport and the Second Baptist Church in America) is a historic Baptist church in Newport, Rhode Island, USA that was ...

, purchased and extensively modified the building. The Central Baptist Church later reunited with the Second Baptist Church and then in the 1940s reunited with the First Baptist Church in Newport to form the

United Baptist Church United Baptist is name of several diverse Baptist groups of Christianity in the United States and Canada. History The name "United Baptist" appears to have arisen from two separate unions of Baptist groups: (1) the union of Regular Baptists and S ...

. The church's original steeple blew down in the

1938 hurricane The 1938 New England Hurricane (also referred to as the Great New England Hurricane and the Long Island Express Hurricane) was one of the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclones to strike Long Island, New York, and New England. The storm ...

. In 1950 St. Joseph's Church of Newport purchased the meeting house and further renovated the structure. The Clarke Street Meeting House was added to the

in 1971. Around the 1980s the structure was converted into condominiums.

Notable congregants

William Vernon William Vernon (January 17, 1719 – December 22, 1806), of Newport, Rhode Island, was a merchant in the Atlantic slave trade who played a leading role in the Continental Congress' maritime activities during the American Revolution. In 1774, Vern ...

, merchant * Henry Marchant, U.S. District Judge * William Ellery, signer of Declaration of Independence

Gallery

File:Central Baptist Church, Newport, R.I LCCN2003654282 (cropped).jpg, Engraving ca. 1879 showing steeple, which was destroyed in the

File:Second Congregational Church NRHP 71000020 (cropped).jpg, After 1938 hurricane File:INTERIOR FROM THE WEST - Second Congregational Church, 13-17 Clarke Street, Newport, Newport County, RI HABS RI,3-NEWP,71-4.tif, Interior File:Clarke Street in Newport, Rhode Island.jpg, Location on Clarke Street next to the

Artillery Company of Newport The Newport Artillery Company of Newport, Rhode Island was chartered in 1741 by the Rhode Island General Assembly during the reign of King George II of Great Britain. It is the oldest military unit in the United States operating under its origina ...

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Churches completed in 1735 Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island United Church of Christ churches in Rhode Island Churches in Newport, Rhode Island National Register of Historic Places in Newport, Rhode Island 18th-century churches in the United States Historic district contributing properties in Rhode Island

History

Notable congregants

Gallery

See also

References