At the April Monthly Meeting, the Allen’s Neck Meeting gave the Building and Grounds Committee their blessing to go forward to apply for a Dartmouth Community Preservation Grant Proposal.
How did the funds for the Community Preservation Committee come about? On April 1, 2002 the residents of Dartmouth agreed to levy a 1½ % surcharge on property taxes. Remember, this is on taxes, not on assessed value with no surcharge on the first $100,000 of assessed property value. The local funds collected from the surcharge are matched by the State Community Preservation Trust Fund (CPTF).
The CPTF is funded through a surcharge of $20 on filing at the Registry of Deeds and the Land filing at the Land Court as well as a $10 assessment on municipal liens.
The funds can be spent on three large areas; open space, historical preservation and affordable housing. We believe that Allen’s Neck Meetinghouse qualifies for the historical preservation category.
We are part of the early development of Dartmouth. Some of this history can be found in Beverly Glennon’s Book, Dartmouth, Early History of a Massachusetts Coastal Town, 2001, and the History of Allen’s Neck f
Friends Meeting by Mary Sullivan, 1979.
The Religious Society of Friends, sometimes called Quakers, were not welcome to New England. Many times they were arrested when they arrived and were sent
sent right back to England. They were often penalized for holding meetings in their homes. Ralph Allen from Sandwich was fined for doing so . In order to pay the fee he had to sell three of his oxen, four of his cows, a steer, and his horse along with a mare and a foal. With this kind of treatment he and his family decided to move to Dartmouth, which seemed to be more tolerant of Quakers. The grandchildren and great grandchildren of these original settlers became residents of our town. The Allens had houses scattered all around Allen’s Pond and we see this reflected in the names of Allen’s Neck Meeting and Allen’s Neck Road.
In the next newsletter we will summarize the community activities that Allen’s Neck Meeting presently supports, especially our annual clambake. The Building and Grounds Committee is sponsoring a clean up day on June 27 at 1:00 pm at the clambake grounds to prepare for the clambake Thursday, August 19. We will provide a few hot dogs and some specially made lemonade for those who come and help. We are looking for some enthusiastic hard workers to pitch in and help get the grounds ready for the big day.
Jim Munger
Convenor, Buildings & Grounds Committee