Darby Meeting
The Darby Meeting or Darby Friends Meeting House is located in Darby, Pennsylvania. The first recorded minutes of the meeting are dated July 2, 1684, not long after William Penn landed in nearby Chester to establish the colony of Pennsylvania. The first Friends meeting house in Darby was a log cabin built in 1687.[3] The third and present building was built in 1805.[4] It was used during the Revolutionary War by Continental soldiers. During the War of 1812, it was used by the U. S. Army as a hospital.[5]
Darby Meeting | |
Darby Meeting, November 2009 | |
Location | 1017 Main Street, Darby, Pennsylvania |
---|---|
Coordinates | 39°55′15″N 75°15′48″W |
Area | 4 acres (1.6 ha) |
Built | 1805 |
NRHP reference No. | 78002392[1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | September 13, 1978 |
Designated PHMC | June 1952[2] |
The 2 1⁄2-story building follows the Quaker tradition of simple and solid buildings. Its design is similar to that of the Horsham Friends Meeting House with separate entrances for men and women. Its walls are coursed fieldstone with stuccoed gables at each end. Brick fireplaces are also on each end of the interior. A covered porch extends along three sides of the ground floor, with the porch roof supported by simple wooden posts. Wooden posts also support the interior balcony. Most of the benches and other furniture are built of pine, but the floor is oak. Electric lighting and the usual utilities have been added, but otherwise the building retains its original form.[3]
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 13, 1978.[1]
Notable burials
- John Bartram (1699-1777), botanist, horticulturist and explorer[6]
John Blunston: Founder of Darby, PA; 3x Speaker of the Colonial Assembly
Martha Schofield: Educator
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Delaware County, Pennsylvania
- Darby Free Library, founded by Quakers in 1743. The current building stands about 30 yards south of the meetinghouse
References
- "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- "PHMC Historical Markers". Historical Marker Database. Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. Archived from the original on December 7, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- "National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania" (Searchable database). CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information System. Note: This includes Charles Dunlevey (1973). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Darby Meeting" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-01-02.
- Ashmeade, Henry Graham (1884). History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co. p. 522. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
- Darby Friends Meeting House - history
- "John Bartram". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 9 April 2019.