Jamesport Meeting House

The oldest church or public building on the East End, raised in 1731 by nearly every family then living in what is now Riverhead — the jail keeper excepted. Lightning hit the steeple in 1900 and neighbours had to climb above the Civil War bell and chop the burning top off; the rebuild came back thirty feet shorter. Lyman Beecher preached his anti-duelling sermon from this pulpit in 1806, and the pamphlet went national. A preservation trust bought the building in 2008 and runs it as a community hall.