One fine September day in 1773 the people of Wilton, New Hampshire, gathered to realize their dream, raising the frame of a brand new meetinghouse that would be the literal and symbolic center of this small farming community. But dream became nightmare when a huge center roof beam gave way, dropping fifty-three workers three stories to the ground and collapsing tons of trusswork, planks and joists, and metal tools on them. Five died. Forty-eight were injured, many seriously.

The catastrophe might have been lost in history had Charles E. Clark not discovered an heirloom copy of an anonymous, forty-three-stanza ballad memorializing it. Sifting through clues from the ballad and from archival records, Clark pieces together the mystery to give a full picture of the disaster. His Meetinghouse Tragedy offers a fascinating glimpse into architectural history, popular and folk culture, religious traditions, and the ways communal memories are formed and then endure.