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Quakers II: Extreme Peace.
Who would have thought someone could be too extreme for Quakers? It happened, back in the 1800s, and when he was kicked out, he headed to Newmarket. (Well, Sharon, but Sharon's a suburb of Newmarket.) When in Sharon, he did what the locals did, and set up an activist religious sect that was responsible for building this:
Sharon is now a National Peace Site. It had been abandoned for years; there's a great picture of this building, windows all fallen out, sitting in the middle of a meadow surrounded by grazing cows. We ended up here because a friend of mine stumbled across information about these extreme Quakers while doing some reading, and was inspired to write a musical about them. During his ongoing research, he discovered someone had already done that. What are the chances?!?
Their leader had a fancy shed constructed on the grounds, and used it as his study. It was a wee room, with just enough in there to work and survive, in addition to some pretty fancy'n'gauzy curtains. Nowadays, he would have gotten by in the garage behind the house; people had class back then.
Inside, there is an honest to goodness Jacob's Ladder, original sitting chairs, and in the middle of the room, an Ark that contains a bible. Why the middle? So that the bible always was in the most powerful spot in the room, and it meant that no person could usurp that power - it served as a constant reminder that they were subservient to their scripture. Kinda makes one understand why the Quakers didn't want any more of this crazy bunk. 
Behind the Temple lies the house built for the master builder who designed and built it. The two-story house was a veritable castle back in them days, when homes were made from raw log, and you were lucky to stand upright inside. You can barely make out the portrait of him and his wife on the wall in the sitting room. Apparently, he had designed and built part of Princeton, as well as a couple of State legislatures in the US (New Jersey springs to mind). He obviously had a great talent that I'm guessing was channelled from an unholy source by that weird dolly that still sits on their bed. Haunting? Haunted!
And people say Canadian history is boring!
Who would have thought someone could be too extreme for Quakers? It happened, back in the 1800s, and when he was kicked out, he headed to Newmarket. (Well, Sharon, but Sharon's a suburb of Newmarket.) When in Sharon, he did what the locals did, and set up an activist religious sect that was responsible for building this:
Sharon is now a National Peace Site. It had been abandoned for years; there's a great picture of this building, windows all fallen out, sitting in the middle of a meadow surrounded by grazing cows. We ended up here because a friend of mine stumbled across information about these extreme Quakers while doing some reading, and was inspired to write a musical about them. During his ongoing research, he discovered someone had already done that. What are the chances?!?
Their leader had a fancy shed constructed on the grounds, and used it as his study. It was a wee room, with just enough in there to work and survive, in addition to some pretty fancy'n'gauzy curtains. Nowadays, he would have gotten by in the garage behind the house; people had class back then.
Inside, there is an honest to goodness Jacob's Ladder, original sitting chairs, and in the middle of the room, an Ark that contains a bible. Why the middle? So that the bible always was in the most powerful spot in the room, and it meant that no person could usurp that power - it served as a constant reminder that they were subservient to their scripture. Kinda makes one understand why the Quakers didn't want any more of this crazy bunk. 
Behind the Temple lies the house built for the master builder who designed and built it. The two-story house was a veritable castle back in them days, when homes were made from raw log, and you were lucky to stand upright inside. You can barely make out the portrait of him and his wife on the wall in the sitting room. Apparently, he had designed and built part of Princeton, as well as a couple of State legislatures in the US (New Jersey springs to mind). He obviously had a great talent that I'm guessing was channelled from an unholy source by that weird dolly that still sits on their bed. Haunting? Haunted!
And people say Canadian history is boring!
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