Chichester Friends Meetinghouse

Chichester Friends Meetinghouse
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location:	611 Meetinghouse Rd., Boothwyn, Pennsylvania
Coordinates:	39°50′11″N 75°25′53″W / 39.83639°N 75.43139°W / 39.83639; -75.43139Coordinates: 39°50′11″N 75°25′53″W / 39.83639°N 75.43139°W / 39.83639; -75.43139
Area:	6 acres (2.4 ha)
Built:	1769
Governing body:	Private
NRHP Reference#:	73001622[1]
Added to NRHP:	March 14, 1973

Chichester Friends Meetinghouse is a historic Quaker meeting house at 611 Meetinghouse Road near Boothwyn, in Upper Chichester Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. This area, near Chester was one of the earliest areas settled by Quakers in Pennsylvania. The meetinghouse, first built in 1688, then rebuilt after a fire in 1769 reflects this early Quaker heritage. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

History

In the year that William Penn first arrived in Pennsylvania, 1682, the Chichester Meeting was first organized as an "indulged meeting" or subsidiary meeting of the Uplands Monthly Meeting of present day Chester. The Uplands Meeting had been organized by Robert Wade, who arrived in the area in 1675, from earlier Quaker settlements in New Jersey. Chichester attained the status of Monthly Meeting in March, 1684.^[2] This group of Friends met in member's homes until about 1688 when a 24-foot (7.3 m) square meetinghouse was built on two acres donated by James Browne. In January 1769 the meetinghouse burned down, and later that year a 33 by 38-foot (12 m) building was erected in its place.

The doors show bullet holes incurred from British foraging parties after the Battle of Brandywine in September, 1777.^[2] The Meeting has been "laid down" or discontinued for many years, and the meetinghouse is only used for special occasions. No modern conveniences such as heat, plumbing or electricity have been added to the building, so it is considered to be in pristine condition.^[3]

It was illegal to build Quaker meetinghouses in England until the Act of Toleration of 1689. Because meetinghouses were built in this area of Pennsylvania at an earlier date, and because the 1769 meetinghouse is believed to reflect the style of the earlier meetinghouse, the Chichester Meetinghouse is believed to show an early "English" style of Quaker architecture.^[3]

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  Interior

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  Carved graffiti

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  Conveniences

References

1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Chichester Friends Meetinghouse - NRHP Nomination, 1971
3. ^ ^{a b} Historic American Buildings Survey; Quaker Information Center (2003). Silent Witness: Quaker Meetinghouse in the Delaware Valley, 1695 to Present. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. pp. 52.  Text and photographs by HABS