Historic Jamesport Meeting House strikes a chord with new audiences

A hall built by Puritan settlers in the 1700s might not be the first venue that comes to mind when you hear “all-girl funk band.”

But the eight young women of GUNK, short for girl funk, are set to take the very old stage at the Jamesport Meeting House to kick off a new year of programming on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

The band comprises seven public school music teachers and a professional musician who sing and play guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, trombone and saxophone, drawing inspiration from Motown girl groups and modern-day pop alike.

Hosting a unique lineup of music and programs at the meeting house, the oldest public building on the East End, is a central tenet of the Jamesport Meeting House Preservation Trust. The nonprofit formed in 2008 to prevent commercial development from wiping out the historic landmark on Main Road in Jamesport.

It's part of an ongoing effort to bring unique programs to new audiences at the meeting house while preserving the building's legacy as a historic community space.

Adapting historic sites goes hand in hand with preservation, said Jackie Powers, executive director at Preservation Long Island, a Cold Spring Harbor nonprofit.

Powers said while sometimes historic sites are preserved with their original purpose in mind, other times those uses evolve based on community needs.

"The beauty is that you can retain the craftsmanship and detail of these older structures that would never be replicated again," she said. "But then you also have new organizations and new groups that can benefit from the use of the space, and the larger community ultimately benefits."

Preservation success

The meeting house was built in 1731 by pioneer settlers of Riverhead Town and used for religious services and public meetings, said preservation trust president Richard Wines.

“It was basically a do-it-yourself project,” Wines, 78, said, adding that historical records show lists of 31 men who contributed timber and stone for the construction and another 20 who worked on the parsonage.

The preservation trust formed in 2008 after the building was listed for sale as commercial real estate, raising and borrowing money to save it. “We didn’t think it should become a Starbucks or a pizza parlor,” Wines said.

In the 16 years since, the nonprofit has helped restore the building by ripping out red shag carpeting, repairing a leaky steeple, replacing windows and shutters, renovating an uneven floor and adding air conditioning, using a mix of community donations and grant funding from Suffolk County and the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.

Today, the meeting house is listed as a town landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places and continues to host religious services, wedding ceremonies, civic meetings, concerts, lectures, live theater and other programs.

For Wines, the programming helps stay true to the spirit of a public meeting house, albeit for a modern audience.

The GUNK performance, he joked, is “definitely one the Puritans would probably not have appreciated,” since they famously did not use musical instruments during worship services. “They thought musical instruments were the work of the devil,” Wines said.

'It's community building'

Since forming in June 2023, GUNK has played the usual venues: breweries, open mic nights, weddings, street fairs and a battle of the bands competition. But the members are looking forward to the meeting house gig, hoping to meet new fans or see familiar students' faces in a more family-friendly performance setting.

“It’s community building,” said Meghan Kelly, of Wading River, who teaches elementary music in Riverhead and plays saxophone in the band.

Kelly, 32, said the set list includes modern pop hits and girl power anthems like a funky take on ABBA’s “Dancing Queen,” but is heavily influenced by Motown groups like Martha and the Vandellas.

Kelly and bandmates Dea Ahlgrim, Julia Bellante, Mabel Burgos, Crystal Crespo, Gabriella Forgit and Kailey Schnurman teach music in the Riverhead, William Floyd and Patchogue-Medford school districts, while the eighth member, Diana Fuller, plays music professionally.

Though each studied an instrument in college, they play “secondary” instruments in the band, Kelly said. “There is something really, really special about practicing things that you’re ‘bad’ at,” she said.

It’s a message she conveys in her classroom, too.

“I always tell my students if you're only practicing what you're good at, then you'll only ever play ‘Hot Cross Buns,’” she said. “That makes music really fulfilling.”

Jeff Greenberger, of Cutchogue, a board member for the Meeting House Preservation Trust, booked GUNK after seeing them perform last year. He said the band fits the bill for what the nonprofit tries to bring in to introduce audiences to different genres.

In November, Greenberger, 66, brought a Gospel show to the meeting house.

“It’s kind of an all-purpose building,” he said. “The thought that it could continue to be true to its original intention to be a meeting house for the community drives the board. And of course, music brings people together.”