 MAY/SUMMER 2002 (XXXX 3) |
From September 21st through December 31st, an exhibit entitled "Silent Witness: Quaker Meeting Houses in the Delaware Valley, 1695 to the Present" will be mounted at the Athenaeum, 219 S. Sixth Street in Philadelphia.
This exhibit will display the results of efforts by the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) program of the National Park Service to trace the evolution of meeting houses through documentation of 27 select meeting houses associated — either currently or historically — with Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. The resulting large-format photographs, measured architectural drawings, and historical text create a comprehensive, publicly accessible record that can serve as the basis for interpretation and preservation. They also shed light on a Quaker aesthetic.
The HABS involvement with Quaker meeting houses in the Delaware Valley began in the fall of 1996 with a general examination of over eighty meeting houses, followed by an intensive documentation of six meeting houses by a field team in the summer of 1997: Merion (ca. 1695-1715), Radnor (1718), Buckingham (1768), Chichester (1769), Caln (1782), West Grove (1903). Photographs and short-form histories were developed for 13 additional meeting houses: Plymouth (1708, 1780), Old Kennett (1731), Bradford (1765), Roaring Creek (1796), Arch Street (1804/1811), Darby (1805), Upper Providence (1828), New West Grove (1831), Little Abington or Abington Orthodox (1836), Race Street (1857), West Philadelphia (1901), Westtown (1923), and Chestnut Hill (1931).
During the summer of 1999 another HABS team examined eight more which they felt “exemplify a particular stage in the evolution of Friends meeting house design from the time of the earliest immigration to the Pennsylvania colony to modern times”: Sadsbury (ca. 1747), Frankford (Unity) (1775), Arney’s Mount, NJ (1775), Downingtown (1806), Little Egg Harbor, NJ (1863), Germantown (1869), Middletown Preparative (1770/ca. 1880), and Southampton (1969). (All meetinghouses in Pennsylvania unless noted New Jersey.)
On Saturday, September 21, a full-day symposium at the Athenaeum will celebrate the opening of the exhibit, with speakers providing a context about American religious architectural development within which to view this display of Quaker meetinghouses. Participation will be limited to 200 individuals, with advance registration required. The cost will be $20; $10 for students. Look for more information to be mailed to Meetings and individuals in August.
In January 2003, the exhibit will move to the East Room of the Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia, where it will remain for three months.
The exhibits and the catalog which will accompany them are co-sponsored by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM), the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) program of the National Park Service, and the Quaker Information Center. The Athenaeum joins as a co-sponsor of the symposium. Copies of the catalog will be distributed to all PYM Monthly Meetings and to all Quaker schools, colleges, and universities within the United States. In addition, HABS will donate a full set of all their findings to the Quaker Collection of Haverford College, the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College, and the Athenaeum.
For more information about this project or to request an invitation to the symposium, call (215) 241-7241.
Peggy Morscheck
Central Philadelphia Meeting
PYM-HABS Exhibit Working Group
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM