In colonial New England, a small house having but a single room with a fireplace at one end, usually located near a house of worship; used on Sundays by a family as a place in which to warm and feed themselves during breaks in the all-day religious services, because such services typically were conducted in unheated
meeting houses. Occasionally several families shared a two-room house with a centrally located fireplace; others had a small two-story house for this purpose, with the ground floor used as a stable. Also see
Sunday house.