Page "Roaring Spring, Pennsylvania" Paragraph 49

One of the exceptions to this national trend is the Mennonite meeting house, originally built for the Methodist Episcopal congregation in 1867.

The term " meeting house " is appropriate for this building, which bears none of the vaguely Gothic effects of most post-Civil War American churches.

Rather, it is a regional throwback — an unadorned house-like structure common to early 19th century central Pennsylvania when new congregations often first met in private homes before building simple meeting houses as their first church.

The Methodists were the first organized denomination ( 1802 ) in Roaring Spring, and this building was the town's first house of worship.

The builder, the Rev.

John A. J. Williams ( 1833 – 1909 ), was a Methodist minister by calling and a carpenter by trade, who moved to Roaring Spring after the Civil War.

One of the borough's early leading citizens, he is credited with building many pre-1887 structures in Roaring Spring before the Roaring Spring Planing Mill's founding, including a number of houses on the south side of E. Main Street between Spang and Poplar Streets.