The building in today's photo is the Canonicut Friends Meeting House in Jamestown, Rhode Island. Quakers first arrived in Rhode Island in the mid-1600s, and thanks to a policy of religious tolerance set forth by the colony's founder Roger Williams, many Friends communities spread throughout the region. It's important to note that the Quakers were tolerated by Williams, but they were neither liked nor trusted. In fact, Williams engaged in lengthy and often heated arguments with the Quaker leadership regarding their beliefs and practices. Despite this open hostility, the principle of religious tolerance took precedence and the Quakers thrived in the colony.
The Canonicus Friends built their first Meeting House in 1709, then moved the building to this location next to the Jamestown Windmill in 1734. By the mid 1770s, war broke out between the American Colonies and England and on December 10, 1775 the British landed marines and soldiers in Jamestown. They cut a path of destruction across the island, burning the West Ferry building and also burning any homes or buildings within easy reach of their march. The Canonicus Friends Meeting House was one of the casualties. Jamestown continued to be occupied by British forces until October, 1779. The Meeting House was rebuilt in 1786 on the same land as the original, and it is that building depicted in today's photo.
I had to get a bit creative in today's photo. The image I took was too crisp, and too unblemished to accurately depict the age and turmoil symbolized by the Meeting House. I had to fix that. I added a bit of grain to the image in PSE, and then converted the image to black and white using a gradient map in color blend mode. On top of that I layered a scratched parchment texture in overlay blend mode at 86% opacity, and then lowered the saturation of the texture to provide the grunge look you see here. I adjusted the levels a hair, and then adjusted the contrast further. A sepia photo filter was the top layer.
