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Current view of Honey Creek Friends' Meeting House
Courtesy of the Hardin County Community Development Council |
Church members and local builder, Ernie Moon, constructed the Quaker Honey
Creek Friends' Meeting House in 1916. Roy and Bert Wilson, with Moon's advice
and much help from church members, laid the first brick and constructed the building.
The meeting house is constructed of clay tile, with exterior walls veneered in
brick. The main gable is oriented north-south, with an intersecting front gable
on the east side. A smaller gable is set asymmetrically at the outer corner of
the north and east gable ends. The latter small gable, supported on square brick
piers, shelters the main entrance. Behind it rises a short square bell tower with
crenellated parapet and pairs of elliptical arched openings on each side of the
bell chamber. The small gable on the north side covers a secondary entrance and
vestibule. The meeting room or sanctuary is illuminated on north, south and
east by large segmental arched openings housing a multi-light transom, below which
is a tripartite grouping of two nine-over-one double hung sash windows flanking
a central 15-over-one double hung sash window. All other window openings are simply
rectilinear. The main entrance consists of a pair of paneled doors, each topped
with a semi-circular light. It opens into a vestibule and stairhall (the sanctuary
is a few steps above the level of the entrance) that in turn leads into the meeting
room proper. This room occupies most of the main floor area.
Historic image of Honey Creek Friends Meetinghouse
Courtesy of the Hardin County Community Development Council |
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The Honey Creek Monthly Meeting was first organized in 1852, by a group
of Friends originally from Yadkin County, North Carolina. They arrived in Hardin
County in 1851. The first meeting house was a log building, erected in 1854. It
was replaced, after a fire in 1859, with a 32 by 48 foot building that, with various
subsequent additions, was used until 1916. Although there are no longer regular
services held at the Honey Creek Meeting House there are several events that still
take place within the building. The Honey Creek Preservation Group meets regularly
to make decisions regarding maintenance and sponsoring annual events. The Honey
Creek Meeting House also possesses a wealth of historical information that has
been catalogued and filed for access to interested parties. This information includes
genealogical records, personal histories, letters, church statistical records,
books by local authors, and other items. The Honey Creek Meeting House is
located at 31031 PP Ave., two miles south and a half miles west of New Providence,
Iowa. It is not regularly open to the public, but for further information on special
events or to reserve the facility call Judy Staples at 641-497-5799; Dee Reece
at 641-497-5499; Paul and Alice Williams at 641-497-5391; or Vera Cutler at 641-497-5458.
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