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  • Home
  • Run/Walk Through History
  • Map of our grounds
  • Research your history
    • Family Research Service
    • Internment records A - D
    • Internment records E- I
    • Internment records J - O
    • Internment records P - S
    • Internment records T - Z
  • Old Yard Digital Database
  • Forty Fort Meeting House
  • Agnes Flood of 1972
  • Notable Persons
  • Friends of the Forty Fort
  • How you can support now
    • Donation Opportunities
    • Preservation in action
    • Merchandise
    • Thank you to our donors
  • Services offered
  • Rentals & Collaboration
  • Board Members and Staff
  • Gravesite Policies

The Historic Forty Fort Meeting House

This humble building was the first completed church in which religious services were held in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Additionally, this is the third oldest intact structure in the Wyoming Valley. 

Our past blends with our future

Steeped in rich history, tucked away in a quiet place

Humble beginings

A historic meeting house at River Street and Wyoming Avenue in the Old Forty Fort Cemetery in Forty Fort, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. It was built between 1806–08 in a New England meeting house style with white clapboard siding.


The first European settler in the area came from Connecticut in the late 18th century. In 1768 public lands were set aside in the area for churches by the Susquehanna Company. As a result of the Yankee-Pennamite Wars and the American Revolution, actual building of the churches was delayed by over 30 years. An unfinished meeting house nearby was destroyed after the Battle of Wyoming in 1778.


Joseph Hitchcock of New Haven, Connecticut, who also designed the Old Ship Zion Church in Wilkes-Barre, designed the meetinghouse. It was the first completed church used for religious services in the area. It was a Union Church with both Congregationalist (now Presbyterians) and Methodists worshipping in the same church. By 1837, both groups had built their own churches, and the meetinghouse has not been used for its original purpose since. In 1869, the Forty Fort Cemetery Association was created by the Pennsylvania state legislature and the Association still owns the church and cemetery.


Among the artifacts on display at the Meeting House are the original key and a receipt for payment of the final work completed by Master Carpenter Gideon Underwood. The receipt is dated June 27, 1808 in the amount of $35.


Master Carpenter Gideon Underwood and the members of the Meeting House's original building committee — Lazarus Dennison, Luke Swetland, Elijah Shoemaker Jr., Daniel Hoyt and Benjamin Dorrance — are buried in the Forty Fort Cemetery.


From 1837 to 1860, when the Forty Fort Cemetery Association was chartered maintenance was not kept up. William Swetland, the first president of the Association, put a new roof on the building, painted it and repaired the fence.


Sixty years later in June, 1922, the Colonial Dames Society restored the interior of the Forty Fort Meeting House under the supervision of Col. Thomas H. Atherton, Architect. Later, Mrs. Franck Darte had the exterior painted.

Simple yet impressionable attention to detail

The most remarkable feature of the Forty Fort Meeting House is that it has remained virtually unchanged since 1807. This is attributed to early neglect, eventual careful stewardship and determined preservation efforts.


The five-paneled double door entrance with the large metal lock is original. The interior continues the symmetry of the exterior, with Gideon Underwood's original handcrafted pine interior which has never been painted. The normally light-colored pine has naturally darkened with age.

Our 200th Anniversary in 2007

Under the guidance of John Milner Architects, Inc a leading national authorities on historic building preservation, several repairs were made. The repairs were replacing foundation sills and replacing the 3-foot crawl space with a 9-foot cement and cinder block basement. 

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Steeped in rich history, tucked away in a quiet place

Preservation is at our heart

Following the Meeting House's addition to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988 the realization of the necessity to preserve this historic structure was at the forefront of the communities minds. 


Out of this need, Forty Fort Meeting House Preservation Committee was formed in 1991. Monies were secured through a Legislative Initiative Grant. Between 1992-1993 a new roof was installed, the sills replaced, and a fresh coat of paint was applied. In 1997 and 1998 additional repairs were made through a grant provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.


In recent years, the entire building has been maintained by a group of dedicated volunteers who believe in the importance this unique space provides. 

The Agnes Flood of 1972

During the Agnes Flood of 1972, 2,000 lb. burial vaults and one-third of the Forty Fort Cemetery were washed away by the raging waters of the Susquehanna River. 


The waters rose to the tops of the pews, but the Meeting House was spared any immediate structural damage.


However, lingering moisture from the 1972 flood had caused rotting of the sills at the foundation's base which lead to the foundation being replaced in the 2000's.

make Donations directly to the meeting house

Donations directly for the Forty Fort Meeting House can be made through the following information provided below:


Forty Fort Meeting House Preservation Fund

c/o Forty Fort Cemetery Association 

20 River Street

Forty Fort, Pennsylvania 18704

Connect With Us

Forty Fort Cemetery Association

20 River Street, Forty Fort, Pennsylvania 18704, United States

570-287-5214

Copyright © 2025 Forty Fort Cemetery Association  - All Rights Reserved.

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