One might say that the Midway Church was in the style of the Puritans,
whether brick or wooden. The smaller churches were wooden, and the grand
ones, such as Boston's Old South Meeting House, were of brick, but the
interior was always the same----about as Spartan as one could get. Not even
candlestick holders were tolerated, certainly no cross or picture.
At first the Puritan churches of New England were exactly like their Cape
Cod, Salt Box style houses, brought from East Anglia northeast of
London----except, the houses had a chimney in the center of the house so it
could warm various rooms. The birth house of John Adams as well as the house
of the Salem witch craft victim, Mrs. Nurse, at New Salem, show this style.
Their churches had no chimneys because the Puritans did not believe in
heating churches. The one in Midway had and has neither heat nor lighting.
The Midway Church was different from New England in that there was a balcony
at the back for seating slaves. Photographs of all these buildings except
Boston's Old South Meeting house appear in the Way family history I
published.
Later, in New England, the churches were no longer entered from the center of
the long side of the building, as in the restored Old Meeting House at New
Salem, Mass.. Instead, they had a steeple at one end and the people entered
the church from the shorter side rather than the longer side. In the burial
crypt of John Adams and wife and their son John Quincy Adams and wife, there
is a model of this type of church attended by the Adams family. The Midway
Church is of this style.
Dane Bowen in Alexandria, Va., researching Bowen, Bacon, Carlton (Carleton),
Luker, Sanders (Saunders), Chaudoin (Chaudoins), Maverick, Richey (Ritchie,
Richie, Ritchey), Spence, Sumner, Way, and Wells families.
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