Great Road Day: Saylesville Meeting House

Back in September 2024, I visited Lincoln, RI during Great Road Day, an annual event which celebrates the history of an old highway. My second stop during the trip was Saylesville Meeting House. The village received its name from the mill-owning Sayles family during the mid-19^th century, while the meeting house has been on the National Register for Historic Places since 1978.

The detailed write-up provided by the National Register noted that Quakers first came to Rhode Island in 1654, having been banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony. The famously Quaker colony of Pennsylvania was not established until 1691. Quakers constructed the tiny original building in Saylesville around 1704 with a much larger addition in 1745 and called their organization Smithfield Lower Meeting, as the area was considered part of the town of Smithfield. Before modern building safety codes, the meeting house could hold over a hundred people.

Detailed architectural drawings commissioned by the Department of the Interior show the age and construction techniques of the meeting house. Like many buildings from this time period, clapboard siding protects the outside while gunstock beams hold up the second floor. A pair of doors between the original building and the addition are hinged from the top, much like those found in Conanicut Friends Meetinghouse in Jamestown, RI. As for artifacts in the building, my favorite was a cap worn by abolitionist and women’s rights activist Lucretia Coffin Mott.

Beside the meeting house were a pair of connected Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries: Lincoln 25 Friends Burial Ground and Lincoln 26 Jonathan Arnold Lot. The larger of the two is still used as a burial ground for local Quakers, while the smaller was just for members of the Arnold family. Jonathan Arnold was an 18^th century member of the Rhode Island General Assembly who survived the American Revolutionary War and lived to age ninety along with having seven children with his wife, Abigail Smith Arnold, which resulted in many descendents for the cemetery.

The meeting is accessible to all via a ramp at the main entrance with plenty of seating inside and has excellent lighting for a historic building. Since this property belongs to an active religious organization, tours are not often available. The local Quaker population is much smaller than in the past, but meetings still happen on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. as part of Providence Monthly Meeting. If you are comfortable with exploring the religious views of others, this would likely be the best time to visit the meeting. The women who I met were friendly and knowledgeable; one of them had even been my tour guide at Rehoboth Antiquarian Society, which I visited back in July 2024. Otherwise, the meeting house and cemeteries would make ideal quick history stops in Lincoln.

Abby Epplett’s Rating System

Experience: 8/10

Accessibility: 9/10