EDGEWATER PARK Just off Route 130, tucked behind a car dealership and across the street from a McDonald's restaurant, stands a one-room brick building. Today, it seems out of place along the busy highway, but 200 years ago it was a well-known meeting house used by hundreds for religious services and Sunday school classes.

According to historical records, the Coopertown Meeting House was built in 1806. To celebrate the building's 200th anniversary, the Riverfront Historical Society will host an open house Sept. 16. Visitors can stop by from noon to 3 p.m. and walk around the building, admire its decorative wooden pews and raised pulpit, and inspect the society's collection of memorabilia.

Dennis Rogers, president of the historical society, said many people pass the building, located near the intersection of Cooper Street and Route 130, but don't know its story. “This is the place people ride by and wonder what is inside,” he said.

When the meeting house was constructed, it was actually located in Willingboro Township. In the early 1800s, Willingboro encompassed all of present-day Edgewater Park, Beverly, Delanco and Willingboro, Rogers said. According to historical records, a group of citizens decided to build a meeting house in 1802. More than a hundred people donated money and raised $400 for construction. Another $31 was gathered to erect a fence.

A board of 12 trustees was appointed, and the board purchased one acre from a man named Charles Fetters. By 1806, the building was completed and the board drafted a constitution allowing the building to be used by any religious group, provided its members believed in Jesus Christ. Through the years, many religious groups used it and the surrounding cemetery. In its early days, the meeting house was lit by a chandelier and heated by a coal stove.

In the mid-1820s, the Episcopal Church of Beverly took possession of the meeting house and used it exclusively. After the Episcopalians left to construct a new building of their own, the Methodists took over. The trustees wrested power back in 1835, and decreed that the building would remain free and not owned by any specific church. Starting in 1880, the meeting house was used for Sunday school classes, and later by the Society of Friends.

By 1940, the religious groups no longer needed the meeting house, and it sat vacant for more than 30 years before the Riverfront Historical Society came to the rescue. By that time, the building was in need of major repairs. Its roof was sagging, bricks were damaged, and the plaster inside was discolored. Vandals had broken windows and burned a portion of the hardwood floor.

The historical society launched a fund-raising campaign, and in the early 1980s restored the structure. The building is still owned by the board of trustees, now called the Coopertown Cemetery Association. The historical society holds its monthly meetings there, and has filled the place with old documents, photographs, clothing, books and bottles.

Mr. Rogers said it is important to preserve the meeting house because it is “a symbol of religious freedom they had in America.” For Carol Donahue, another society member, the structure is a unique piece of architecture. “Let's face it,” she said. “You don't make buildings like this anymore. It's just an old classic building.”

LAURI SHEIBLEY