A meetinghouse is a building where a community gathers for religious services, town meetings, or other important group activities. In colonial America, the meetinghouse stood at the center of many New England villages, serving as both a church on Sundays and a place where citizens debated laws, elected officials, and made decisions affecting everyone in town.

Unlike the grand cathedrals of Europe, early American meetinghouses were simple wooden structures with plain benches and clear windows. The Puritans who built them believed that fancy decorations distracted from worship and community business. These buildings had no steeples at first, no stained glass, and no organs. What they had instead was space for an entire community to sit together, discuss problems, and make choices democratically.

The town meeting held in a meetinghouse gave ordinary citizens a direct voice in their government, a practice that still continues in some New England towns today. When everyone could walk to the meetinghouse and speak their mind about issues like building a new school or fixing roads, local democracy became real and tangible.

Some religious groups, particularly Quakers, still call their places of worship meetinghouses rather than churches. The term emphasizes gathering together and meeting with each other and with God, rather than focusing on the building itself.