Friends Meetinghouse
About this property
Friends Meetinghouse is a historic Quaker meeting house at 4th and West Streets in Wilmington, Delaware in the Quaker Hill neighborhood. The meeting has a membership of about 400 and is part of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. It was built in 1815–1817 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The first Quaker meeting for worship in Delaware was held in New Castle at the house of Governor Lovelace in September 1672, when George Fox visited the town. After William Penn became proprietor of the "Three Lower Counties," as Delaware was then known, regular meetings were formed in Newark, Centre and New Castle. Regular meetings did not begin in Wilmington until 1735 when William and Elizabeth Shipley built a one-story brick house near Fourth and Shipley Streets that was used for worship as a Preparative Meeting, officially beginning in 1738. In 1750 the status of Monthly Meeting was granted by the Concord Quarterly Meeting. The first dedicated meetinghouse was built across the street from the current site in 1738 and measured 25 feet (7.6 m) square. The second meetinghouse was built in 1748 on the current site and could hold 500 people. The present building was opened on September 25, 1817 and is said to hold 700 people. A school was founded here in 1748 in the meetinghouse built in 1738, which has evolved into the Wilmington Friends School. In 1937 the school moved from Quaker Hill to the Alapocas neighborhood of Wilmington. John Dickinson, the "penman of the Revolution," is buried in the adjoining burial ground, as are abolitionist Thomas Garrett and Delaware Governor Caleb P. Bennett. Garrett, one of the best known conductors on the Underground Railroad, was a member of the meeting, and lived on Quaker Hill at 227 Shipley Street. He worked closely with Harriet Tubman and is said to have helped 2,700 slaves reach freedom. About 1,500 people came to his funeral at the meetinghouse in January, 1871 where Lucretia Mott spoke. Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. DE-203, "Wilmington Friends Meetinghouse, Fourth & West Streets, Wilmington, New Castle County, DE", 12 photos, 3 data pages, 1 photo caption page, supplemental material
Location
Categories
Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about Friends Meetinghouse
This page lists Friends Meetinghouse. A full Aubrey report for an address near it pulls together this listing alongside battlefield records, land patents, and every other historical record within a chosen radius:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Questions about this property
When was Friends Meetinghouse listed on the National Register?
Friends Meetinghouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1976.
What type of historic resource is Friends Meetinghouse?
Friends Meetinghouse is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Friends Meetinghouse?
The period of significance for Friends Meetinghouse is recorded as the industrial era.
Can I research the history near Friends Meetinghouse?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Friends Meetinghouse will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
More in New Castle County
Historic places, battles, and census history across New Castle County.
Explore New CastleCounty ›More historic places in Delaware
Browse all historic places in Delaware.
View Delawarehistoric sites ›Research the history near this site
An Aubrey US report for an address near Friends Meetinghouse will include this listing alongside battlefield records and other historical sources within your chosen radius.