Friends meeting houses in Pennsylvania

Friends meeting houses are places of worship for the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers. A "meeting" is the equivalent of a church congregation, and a "meeting house" is the equivalent of a church building.

Several Friends meetings were founded in Pennsylvania in the early 1680s.[lower-alpha 1] The Merion Friends Meeting House is the only surviving meeting house constructed before 1700.[3] Thirty-two surviving Pennsylvania meeting houses were constructed before 1800, and are listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) or as contributing properties in historic districts.[4] More than one hundred meeting houses constructed before 1900 were documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey, and published in Silent Witness: Quaker Meeting Houses in the Delaware Valley, 1695 to the Present (2002).[5]

One of the key tenets of the Religious Society of Friends is pacifism, adherence to the Peace Testimony. The "Free Quakers" were supporters of the American Revolutionary War, separated from the Society, and built their own meeting house in Philadelphia, at 5th & Arch Streets (1783).

In 1827, the Great Separation divided Pennsylvania Quakers into two branches, Orthodox and Hicksite. Many individual meetings also separated, but one branch generally kept possession of the meeting house. The two branches reunited in the 1950s.

Meeting houses

Name	Photo	Founded	Constructed	Branch	Notes	Location	Reference
Abington Friends Meeting House		1683	1786	Hicksite		520 Meeting House Rd., Jenkintown 40.0939°N 75.1182°W	FMHS
Arch Street Friends Meeting House		1681	1804, 1811	Orthodox	Philadelphia Yearly Meeting	304 Arch St., Philadelphia 39.9519°N 75.1462°W	NHL
Bart Friends Meeting		1820	1825	Hicksite		Quaker Church Rd., Christiana 39.9328°N 76.0473°W
Birmingham Friends Meetinghouse	More images	1726	1763	Hicksite		Birmingham Rd. near Rt. 926, West Chester 39.9057°N 75.5943°W	NRHP
Birmingham Orthodox Friends Meeting House					About 100 yd (91 m) from Hicksite meeting house. Now a private home.		NRHP
Bradford Friends Meetinghouse		1716, 1726	1765	Orthodox		1364 West Strasburg Road, Marshallton 39.9496°N 75.6800°W	NRHP
Bristol Friends Meeting House		1707, 1711	1713-19	Hicksite		Market & Woods St., Bristol 40.0963°N 74.8572°W	FMHS NRHP HD[6]
Buckingham Friends Meeting House	More images	1701, 1705	1768	Hicksite		5684 York Rd. (Rt 202), Lahaska 40.3447°N 75.0387°W	NHL[7]
Byberry Friends Meeting House		1683, 1701	1808	Hicksite		3001 Byberry Rd., Philadelphia 40.1025°N 74.9809°W
Caln Meeting House		1716	1782	Shared	In 1907 the Orthodox Meeting moved to Coatesville	Rt. 340, Thorndale 40.0073°N 75.7646°W	FMHS
Catawissa Friends Meetinghouse		1775, 1793	1794			South St., Catawissa 40.9510°N 76.4617°W	FMHS NRHP
Chester Friends Meetinghouse		1675, 1698	1829, 1954			24th at Chestnut St. Chester 39.8694°N 75.3639°W	NRHP
Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting		1924	1931, 2012-2013	Shared	The 2013 building features a "Skyspace," a sky-lighted room for quiet contemplation.	100 E. Mermaid Ln, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia 40.0685°N 75.196°W	HABS
Chichester Friends Meetinghouse		1682, 1701	1769	Hicksite		Meeting House Rd., Boothwyn 39.8365°N 75.4313°W	NRHP
Concord Friends Meetinghouse		1684	1728. 1788	Hicksite		Old Concord Rd, Concordville 39.8848°N 75.5192°W	NRHP, FMHS
Darby Friends Meeting		1684	1805	Hicksite		1015 Main St., Darby 39.9211°N 75.2629°W	NRHP
Doe Run		1808, 1811	1883			81 Greenlaw Rd, Cochraneville 39.8892°N 75.8715°W
Downingtown Friends Meeting House		1784, 1811	1806		Uwchlan Monthly Meeting moved here in 1900	800 E. Lancaster Ave, Downingtown 40.0141°N 75.6889°W	FMHS
Exeter Friends Meeting House		1715, 1725	1759	Orthodox		Meeting House Rd., Stonersville 40.3132°N 75.7845°W	FMHS
Fair Hill Friends Meeting House		1702, 1880	1883			Cambria St. at Germantown Ave., Philadelphia 39.9962°N 75.1467°W
Fallowfield Friends Meeting House		1792, 1796	1801 (1811?)	Hicksite		Rt. 82 at Buck Run Rd., Ercildoun 39.9461°N 75.8384°W	FMHS
2nd Falls Friends Meeting House		1683	1728	NA	Replaced by the 1789 third meeting house Housed a Friends School Now divided into apartments	Tyburn Rd. at New Falls Rd., Fallsington 40.1850°N 74.8200°W	FMHS
3rd Falls Friends Meeting House (now William Penn Center)			1789	Orthodox	Houses the William Penn Center	9300 New Falls Rd., Fallsington 40.1849°N 74.8196°W	FMHS
4th Falls Friends Meeting House (located just north of the William Penn Center)			1841	Hicksite	Interior:	9300 New Falls Rd., Fallsington
Frankford Friends Meeting House		1684	1775-76	Hicksite	Orthodox counterpart on Orthodox St.	Unity and Waln Sts., Philadelphia 40.0111°N 75.0843°W	FMHS
Free Quaker Meetinghouse		1780	1783-84	Free Quaker	Closed 1836 Home of the Apprentices' Library, 1841-1897[8] In an 1884 engraving:	5th and Arch, Philadelphia 39.9524°N 75.1487°W	NRHP
Germantown Friends Meeting House		1690	1868-69		Samuel Sloan & Addison Hutton, architects	47 W. Coulter, Philadelphia 40.0324°N 75.1720°W
Goshen Friends Meeting House		1709	1855			814 Chester Rd, Goshenville 39.9933°N 75.5435°W
Gwynedd Friends Meeting House		1689, 1698	1823	Hicksite		Spring House & Pennllyn Turnpike, Lower Gwyynedd 40.2031°N 75.2557°W
Old Haverford Friends Meetinghouse		1682, 1684	1701	Hicksite		235 E. Eagles Road, Havertown 39.9907°N 75.3047°W	FMHS[4]
Homeville Friends Meeting House		1839	1839			Newark Rd. Rt 896, Homeville 39.8608°N 75.9872°W
Horsham Friends Meeting		1714, 1717	1803	Hicksite		Rte. 611 & Horsham Rd., Horsham Township 40.1836°N 75.1316°W	FMHS
Horsham Orthodox Friends Meeting House		1890	1890	Orthodox	Extant?	Saw Mill Lane & Dreshertown Rd., Horsham Township 40.1775°N 75.1397°W
Old Kennett Meetinghouse		1707, 1711	1731 c.	Hicksite		US Route 1, Kennett Square 39.8711°N 75.6481°W	FMHS
Lampeter Friends Meeting House		1728, 1732	1889			Rt. 340, Bird-in-Hand 40.0390°N 76.1850°W
Little Elk Friends Meeting House			1826			Media Rd, Hickory Hill 39.7485°N 75.9304°W
London Grove Friends Meeting House		1724, 1775	1818			Rt. 926 at Newark Rd, West Marlborough Township 39.8696°N 75.7735°W
Longwood Progressive Friends Meeting House		1854	1854			Rt. 1 at Longwood Gardens 39.8687°N 75.6713°W
Maidencreek Friends Meeting House		1732, 1735	1759	Hicksite		West Shore Dr., Kindts Corner (building moved 1929) 40.4622°N 75.9308°W	FMHS
Makefield Friends Meeting House		1750, 1790	1760, 1764	Hicksite		877 Dolington Rd, Lower Makefield 40.2658°N 74.8868°W	NRHP, FMHS
Marlboro Friends Meeting House		1799, 1802	1801		Part of Marlborough Village Historic District	901 Marlborough Springs Rd., Marlborough Village 39.8956°N 75.7046°W	FMHS
Media Monthly Meeting House		1878	1875	Orthodox	known as Chester Monthly Meeting until 1950?	Third St., Media 39.9213°N 75.3913°W
Merion Friends Meeting House	More images	1683	1695-1714	Hicksite	In an 1837 engraving:	615 Montgomery Ave., Merion Station 40.0097°N 75.2544°W	NHL[9]
Middletown Friends Meeting House		1680, 1683	1793	Hicksite		453 W. Maple Ave., Langhorne 40.1752°N 74.9288°W	FMHS
Middletown Friends Meetinghouse		1686, 1701	1702, 1770s, 1888			435 Middletown Rd, Lima 39.9245°N 75.4429°W
Millville Friends Meeting House		1795	1846	Hicksite		Main at Maple St., Millville 41.1231°N 76.5260°W	HABS
New Garden Friends Meeting House		1712, 1715	1743	Hicksite		Newark Rd., Toughkenamon 39.8150°N 75.7526°W	FMHS
Newtown Friends Meeting House		1815, 1817	1817, 1868	Hicksite		219 Court St. Newtown 40.2257°N 74.9357°W
Newtown Square Friends Meeting House		1696, 1706	1791	Hicksite		120 Newtown Rd. (Rt 252), Newtown Square 39.9918°N 75.4050°W	FMHS
Norristown Friends Meeting House			1890			Swede & Pine Sts., Norristown
Oxford Friends Meeting House		1876	1879			S. 3rd St., Oxford 39.7801°N 75.9808°W
Parkersville Friends Meetinghouse		1830	1830	Hicksite		Parkersville Rd. s of Rt 926 Parkersville 39.8861°N 75.6452°W	NRHP
Plumsted Friends Meeting House		1730	1752, 1876			4914 Point Pleasant Pike, Danboro 40.3671°N 75.1145°W	FMHS
Plymouth Friends Meetinghouse	More images	1703, 1710	1708, 1780	Hicksite		Germantown Pike, Plymouth Meeting 40.1025°N 75.2792°W	NRHP[10]
Providence Friends Meeting House		1686	1700, 1727, 1753	Hicksite		Providence Rd., Media 39.9183°N 75.3810°W	HABS
Providence Quaker Cemetery and Chapel		1789	1793		closed 1870	Jct. of PA 4038 and PA 4036 W, Perryopolis 40.072778°N 79.782222°W,	NRHP
Race Street Friends Meeting House			1855-57		Interior:	1515 Cherry St., Philadelphia 39.9559°N 75.1651°W	NRHP
Radnor Friends Meetinghouse	More images	1684, 1698	1717-18	Hicksite		Sproul Rd. (Rt 320), Ithan 40.0300°N 75.3643°W
Reading Friends Meeting House		1750, 1756	1868		Wilson Eyre	108 N. 6th St., Reading 40.3375°N 75.9263°W
Richlands Friends Meeting House		1710, 1723	1862			Main St and Mill Rd, Quakertown 40.4367°N 75.3522°W
Roaring Creek Friends Meeting		1786, 1796	1795-96	Hicksite	Interior:	Quaker Meeting Rd., Numidia 40.8981°N 76.3986°W	FMHS
Sadsbury Friends Meeting House		1723, 1725	1747	Hicksite		Simmontown Rd, Gap 39.9709°N 75.9908°W	FMHS
Schuylkill Friends Meeting House		1812	1807, 1816	Hicksite	Charlestown Friends until 1826	37 N. Whitehorse Rd., Phoenixville 40.1209°N 75.5019°W
Solebury Friends Meeting House		1806, 1811	1806			2680 Sugan Rd., New Hope 40.3728°N 74.9874°W
Springfield Friends Meetinghouse		1686	1703, 1783, 1850
Swarthmore Friends Meeting House		1863, 1893	1881	Hicksite		12 Whittier Place, Swarthmore 39.9073°N 75.3533°W
Twelfth Street Meeting House (now George School Meeting House)	^Circa-1892 photograph ^Disassembled, July 1972		1813-1814 relocated 1972	Orthodox	Built by carpenter John D. Smith using elements of the Greater Meeting House, 1813-1814. Disassembled and relocated, Summer 1972. Rebuilt on campus of the George School, 1973-1974. Charles Hough, restoration architect[11] Re-dedicated, September 24, 1974	Original: 20 South 12th Street, Philadelphia 39.951167°N 75.160278°W Current: George School, Newtown, Bucks County 40.211278°N 74.93375°W	HABS[12]
Unionville Friends Meeting House		1845	1845		Now Grange Hall	Rt. 82, Unionville 39.8956°N 75.7307°W	FMHS
Upper Dublin Friends Meeting House		1814	1814	Hicksite		Ft. Washington & Limekiln Rd. Upper Dublin 40.1622°N 75.1878°W
Upper Providence Friends Meeting House		1716, 1733	1828	Hicksite		8207 Black Rock Road, Oaks 40.1490°N 75.4758°W	HABS
Uwchlan Meetinghouse		1712, 1714	1763 c.	Orthodox		Village Ave. North, Lionville 40.0545°N 75.6599°W	FMHS
Valley Friends Meeting House		1698, 1810	1871			1121 Old Eagle School Rd., Wayne 40.0826°N 75.4151°W
Warrington Friends Meeting House			1769			Carlisle Rd, Wellsville 40.0532°N 76.9298°W
West Chester Meeting House		1810, 1813	1810, 1868	Hicksite		425 N. High, West Chester 39.9642°N 75.6078°W
West Philadelphia Orthodox Friends Meeting House		1878	1878	Orthodox		Powelton & 42nd St., Philadelphia 39.9592°N 75.2066°W
Willistown Friends Meeting House		1753, 1794	1798	Hicksite	Part of Okehocking Historic District	7069 Goshen Rd., Whitehorse 39.9886°N 75.4809°W	FMHS
Wrightstown Friends Meeting Complex		1686	1787	Hicksite		Rt. 413, 4 miles north of Newtown 40.2657°N 74.9818°W	NRHP, FMHS
York Friends Meeting House		1754, 1767	1766, 1783	Hicksite		Philadelphia St., York 39.9630°N 76.7317°W	FMHS

Demolished meeting houses

Name	Image	Founded	Constructed	Demolished	Notes	Location	Reference
Centre Square Meeting House	Shown at center of map	1684	1685-1687[13][lower-alpha 2]	Summer 1702[15]	Built on what is now the site of Philadelphia City Hall Salvaged materials from it were used to build the Bank Meeting House	Broad and High (Market) Streets, Philadelphia
Chester Friends Meeting House		1675	1687–1693	c.1735	William Penn attended meeting in Chester, probably in a private home, soon after his October 1682 arrival.	near 24th & Chestnut Streets, along Ridley Creek, Chester
Evening Meeting House[lower-alpha 3] replaced on the same site by Bank Meeting House		1682	1683-1685[lower-alpha 4]	1698	A temporary, wood-frame building, built on Bank Hill, along the Delaware River.[14][lower-alpha 5] Also used for meetings of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and Provincial Council.[17]	W. side of Front Street, btw. Race & Vine Streets, Philadelphia
Bank Meeting House[lower-alpha 6]			1703		A large two-story, three-bay brick building, 50 ft (15 m) square, with separate entrances for men and women.[18]^:28 Built using salvaged materials from the demolished Centre Square Meeting House.[18]^:27 Sold 1791.[15]
Fourth Street Meeting House and School			1763-1764[19]	1859[19]	A two-story brick building, "76 feet front on Fourth street, 42 feet deep."[19] Built beside the Friends Public School (for boys). A school for girls occupied the meeting house's second floor.[19]	E. side of Fourth Street, btw. Chestnut & Sansom Streets, Philadelphia	PAB[20]
Great Meeting House (High Street Meeting House) replaced on the same site by Greater Meeting House	Great Meeting House		1695	1755	Interior lighted by a roof lantern.[lower-alpha 7]	SW. corner 2nd & Market Streets, Philadelphia	PAB[22]
Greater Meeting House	Greater Meeting House		1755	1812-1813	A square, two-and-a-half-story brick building, 57 ft (17 m) per side, built by carpenter Abraham Carlisle and his apprentice Isaac Coates.[lower-alpha 8] Dismantled by carpenter John D. Smith, and used to build Twelfth Street Meeting House, 1813-1814.
Green Street Meeting House Home of the North Monthly Meeting until c.1828			1815-1816[15]	c.1970	"The dimensions of the building were forty-seven by seventy-three feet."[23] Home of the Monthly Meeting for the Northern District until the 1827-28 Hicksite/Orthodox schism.[24] Discontinued as a meeting, 1914. Reopened as Friends Neighborhood House, a settlement house serving immigrant communities.[24]	SE. corner 4th & Green Streets, Philadelphia
Key's Alley Meeting House Home of the North Monthly Meeting, 1790-1816			1790		Dimensions: "68 by 50 feet, … an additional apartment of brick 40 by 45 feet on the north side of the building, for a Monthly Meeting room."[15] Home of the North Meeting until 1816, when it moved to Green Street Meeting House.[15] The former meeting house became a Philadelphia public school.[15]	N. side of New Street, btw. Front & 2nd Streets, Philadelphia
North Meeting House[24]			1838	c.1968	Built for Orthodox Friends who separated from the Hicksite Green Street Meeting House. "The dimensions of the building were 118 by 65 feet, with a height of 30 feet."[24] Discontinued as a meeting, 1914. Sold 1918; became a community center and playground.[24]	SW. corner 6th & Noble Streets, Philadelphia
Pine Street Meeting House (Hill Meeting House)		1747	1752-1753[19]		Land donated by Samuel Powel.[25] "The meeting agrees that a brick house of 60 feet front, and 43 feet deep shall be built on said lot."[19] A two-story, three-bay brick building, with separate entrances for men and women.[18]^:28 Robert Smith, builder	S. side of Pine Street, btw. Front & 2nd Streets, Philadelphia	PAB[26]

Notes

1. Charles II of England granted a charter to William Penn for the Pennsylvania Colony in 1681, in repayment of a large debt to Penn's late father. Penn, a Quaker, quickly drew up plans to divide the land within the colony, but in a way that encouraged settlement rather than real estate speculation. Initially, Pennsylvania was a predominantly, but not exclusively, Quaker colony, with Huguenots, Jews, and other persecuted religious minorities among the settlers. Penn was one of about sixty passengers who arrived at Philadelphia aboard The Welcome, in October 1682.[1] It is estimated that more than 2,000 European settlers arrived by ship in the first two years of the colony.[2]
2. "We are now laying the foundation of a new brick meeting-house in the Centre [Square] (sixty feet long and about forty feet broad), and hope to soon have it up, there being many hearts and hands at work that will do it." — Robert Turner to William Penn, August 3, 1685.[14]
3. "Friends were long accustomed to hold night meetings on the Sabbath. Their house on the Bank Hill, on Front Street, was at first called Evening Meeting because [it was] chiefly made for such a convenience when that at Centre Square was too far off."[16]
4. "[Construction of a] large meeting-house, fifty feet long and thirty-eight broad, also going on in the front of the river for an evening meeting." — Robert Turner to William Penn, August 3, 1685.[14]
5. The Evening Meeting House was located on the west side of Front Street, at or slightly north of the present crossing of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
6. The ministers' galleries from the Bank Meeting House survive at the Sadsbury Meeting House in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.[18]
7. "It was surmounted, in the centre of its four-angled roof, by a raised frame of glass-work so constructed as to let light down into the meeting below, after the manner of the former Burlington [New Jersey] meeting-house."[21]
8. A floor joist from the Greater Meeting House is initialed and dated: "AC + IC 1755," spelled out in nailheads.

References

1. List of passengers aboard The Welcome, from The Welcome Society of Pennsylvania.
2. Cary Hutto, "What ship carried William Penn and some of the first settlers to Pennsylvania across the Atlantic?" Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
3. Tyson, Rae. "Our First Friends, The Early Quakers". www.phmc.state.pa.us. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
4. Friend Meeting House Survey, Historic American Buildings Survey, 2002, notes used for Silent Witness, available at Friends Historic Library at Swarthmore College.
5. Historic American Buildings Survey (2002). Silent Witness: Quaker Meeting Houses in the Delaware Valley, 1695 to the Present. p. 56.
6. Patrick W. O'Bannon, 1986, NRHP Nomination Form - Bristol Historic District
7. National Historic Landmark Nomination, Buckingham Friends Meeting House
8. Seventy-Seventh Annual Report of the Managers of the Apprentices' Library of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Spangler & Davis, 1897), pp. 7-8.
9. Bill Bolger; David G. Orr & Catherine LaVoie (February 3, 1998). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Merion Friends Meeting House" (pdf). National Park Service. Cite journal requires |journal= (help) and Accompanying 9 photos, exterior and interior, from 1987. (32 KB)
10. "National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania" (Searchable database). CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information System. Note: This includes Helen Reichart Mirras (December 1969). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Plymouth Friends Meetinghouse" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-05-24.
11. Charles Hough, "It's all about the trusses," April 2008 lecture, from The George School.
12. Twelfth Street Meeting House, from HABS.
13. J. W. Lippincott, "Early Meetinghouses of Friends," Friends' Intelligencer and Journal, vol. 46, no. 29 (September 20, 1889), pp. 452-54.
14. J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia, Volume 2 (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1884), p. 1242.
15. J. W. Lippincott, "Early Meetinghouses of Friends," Friends' Intelligencer and Journal, vol. 46, no. 30 (September 27, 1889), pp. 467-69.
16. William McKoy, Reminiscences (1829), quoted in John Fanning Watson, Annals of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1830).
17. J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia, Volume 1 (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1888), p. 121.
18. Seth Beeson Hinshaw, The Evolution of Quaker Meeting Houses in North America, 1670-2000 (master's thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 2001).(PDF)
19. J. W. Lippincott, "Early Meetinghouses of Friends," Friends' Intelligencer and Journal, vol. 46, no. 31 (October 3, 1889), pp. 486-87.
20. 4th Street Meeting House and School, from PAB.
21. John Fanning Watson, Annals of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1830), vol. 1, p. 355.
22. Great Meeting House, from PAB.
23. J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia, Volume 2 (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1888), p. 1260.
24. "The Passing of the North Meeting-House, Philadelphia," Quaker History, vol. 8, no. 3 (November 1918), pp. 106-08.
25. J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia, Volume 2 (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1888), p. 1250.
26. Pine Street Meeting, from PAB.

Further reading

• Brief Historical Sketches concerning Friends' Meetings of the Past and Present with special reference to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, compiled by T. Chalkey Matlack, Moorestown, N.J. 1938. Available at the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College.
• Futhey, John Smith; Cope, Gilbert (1881). History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches. Philadelphia: L.H. Everts. pp. 782. Retrieved August 17, 2016.

See also

• List of Quaker meeting houses

External links

• QuakerMeetings.com, "Monthly Meetings in North America: A Quaker Index" - a database of the history of meetings (rather than meeting houses)