Plymouth Friends Meeting House, Corner of Germantown & Butler Pikes, Plymouth Meeting, Montgomery County, PA

The documentation for HABS PA-179 belongs to this record. It is incorrectly identified as Quaker Meetinghouse in Haverford, PA.

Significance: Built in two parts, the original section of Plymouth Meeting House erected ca. 1708 is among the oldest standing Friends Meeting Houses in the Delaware Valley, and its evolution is indicative of the expansion of early meeting houses to meet programmatic changes. The ca. 1708 section was built as a single-cell meeting house to which was later appended a structure used for the women's business meetings and possibly a school. Following a fire that necessitated a partial reconstruction, the women's section was rebuilt in a manner that made it more integral with the main block, separated by a retractable wood partition rather than by a wall as had been the situation prior, and maintaining the same roof line. The reconstruction came at a time when meeting houses were being erected as two-cell or "doubled plan" structures with equal apartments for men's and women's business meetings, and old meeting houses were being remodeled to conform to the new standard.

Survey number: HABS PA-6689

Building/structure dates: ca. 1708 Initial Construction

Building/structure dates: after. 1780- before. 1800 Subsequent Work

friends meeting houses stone buildings quakers religious services plymouth meeting plymouth friends plymouth friends house germantown butler pikes butler pikes montgomery county pennsylvania jack e boucher historic american buildings survey william jeanes catherine c lavoie virginia barrett price annie h wilson photo ultra high resolution high resolution library of congress

1930 - 1970

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html