Smith Clove Meetinghouse

The meetinghouse sits in the middle of a lot, gently sloping uphill westward. The land is mostly open with several large trees, and some smaller ones that shade the meeting house. A small burial ground for early members of the meeting is located just to the north. It is a one-and-a-half-story four-by-two-bay clapboard-sided frame house supported by a fieldstone foundation. The gabled, wood-shingled roof is pierced by a central chimney. A porch runs the length of the south-facing front facade. The entrances are on either end, with an accompanying window, reflecting a contemporary Quaker practice of holding separate meetings for men and women. There are two other windows on the east and west elevations. A small privy is attached to the rear elevation. The interior consists of a sparely finished meeting room, with removable wooden partition. The walls are painted plaster, the flooring is wide wooden planks. The furniture consists of simple wooden benches and two wood-burning stoves. ==History==

The Smith Clove meeting began in 1790 as a preparative meeting under the Cornwall meeting, a few miles to the north. They met in a member's home until the need for a separate meeting house became apparent after a decade, and the land for the current meeting house was purchased in 1801. The name Smith Clove came from the original landowner of the area from the Cheesecocks Patent, William Smith, and the Dutch term kloof, for a steep, narrow valley such as the one in which Highland Mills is located, between Schunemunk Mountain and the Hudson Highlands, where Woodbury Creek flows. The members built the house themselves, it is believed, and it was complete and in use by 1803. To avoid the possible confiscation of the land, which had happened to some Quaker meetings in the area before the Revolution, several of the member families held title to the land rather than the meeting itself. ==References==