Friends at Centre Meeting have the privilege to meet in a facility with a rich and long history. In addition to the beautiful physical facilities, there is a substantial endowment in place to support the maintenance of the meeting facilities and for the spiritual enrichment of our community. All of this is available because of the stewardship of Friends who came before us. We need to keep the stewardship of these historical Friends as a guiding light as we partake of and care for the physical and spiritual Centre Friends Meeting at this time, so those who come after us may be blessed as we currently are.

The goal of this paper is to outline a brief history, especially noting those who have contributed to the maintenance of Centre Friends Meeting.

CURRENT MEETING:

Centre Friends Meeting is a Monthly Meeting of Friends in the Western Quarter of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. The Meeting follows Friends Practice as outlined in Faith and Practice (1997). Meeting for Worship is unstructured, or silent meeting, held from 11AM to noon each Sunday. A First Day School (Sunday School) is held at the same time for children. Much of the business of the Meeting is conducted in small committee groups, which meet at announced times. All meetings are open to all attenders.

Overseers Committee - Looks out for the physical needs of attenders, evaluates requests for membership, and in general serves the pastoral role of the meeting.

Worship and Ministry Committee - Focuses on improving worship of the meeting, organizes adult education, and is mindful of the spiritual needs of members.

Property Committee - Manages the property maintenance and other issues related to the physical property of Centre Meeting. The graveyard sub-committee sells grave plots and assigns specific burials sites when requested.

Trustees - Manages the endowment, plans the budget, and are the legal agents of the Centre Meeting Corporation.

Education Committee - Manages and oversees the First Day School, and hires the education staff.

Nominating Committee - Nominates members to committees and other posts in the meeting. These nominations are presented to business meeting for the approval of the whole Meeting.

Peace and Social Concerns - Works on issues related to improving the society by addressing specific concerns the Meeting can address.

Contributions Committee - Recommends specific organizations and causes for the meeting to make contributions to.

Committees make reports to the Monthly Meeting for Worship for Business which is held on the third Sunday of each month from 9:30AM to 11AM. All issues are discussed and approval is by reaching a "sense of the meeting" which means there is agreement to proceed in a specific direction by all present. Votes are not taken in friends practice. All meetings are open to all spiritual seekers.

George Harlan of Christiana Hundred in 1687 wrote the Monthly Meeting requesting permission to hold services on the Brandywine River’s west side. He stated that " the dangerousness of the ford (of the Brandywine) in winter’s rough weather make it too difficult to reach First Day worship at the parent meeting house in Brandywine Hundred". From this request came the still used Centre Meeting House with the first permanent home for the Friends community organized in 1690 on the west bank of the Brandywine River for settlers holding land grants from William Penn. Initially Meetings were held in member's homes but the membership grew, so by 1695, six acres of land was acquired from Alfonsus Kirk, and a Meeting House built of logs was completed in 1711. The original Trustees were Thomas Hollingsworth, John Gregg, Alfonsus Kirk, Samuel Greaves, George Harlan, and Mr. Wilson. The log structure was replaced in 1796 by the brick structure which currently is being used. This meeting was called Centre Meeting because it was between New Ark Meeting which was the meeting on the east side of Brandywine, and Kennet Square Meeting which was the next meeting on the west side of the Brandywine River. In the early 1700’s a Meeting was also organized in Hochessin and was called Centre Meeting at Hochessin. Gradually as more of the population moved west this became a larger meeting and by 1876 Meeting for Worship at the current Centre Meeting was reduced to one Sunday a month. Descendants of the original settlers and trustees continued to look out for the buildings at Centre Meeting.

In 1954, Hochessin Meeting was formally formed with it’s own legal corporation and charter, ceasing to be called Centre Meeting at Hochessin, and becoming Hochessin Monthly Meeting. At this time there was a lot of discussion about what to do with the assets which had been somewhat commingled. At the urging of John Hollingsworth, Ken Berry and Bill Gamble worked to establish separate funds and accounting with Sanford Smith, who was treasurer at Hochessin Meeting. William (Bill) Gamble was appointed assistant treasurer in charge of Centre Meeting funds. This deal was negotiated by the Centre Meeting Committee (John V. Hollingsworth, Levis Phipps, and William Gamble) with Hochessin Meeting during the time that Ken Berry was Clerk of the trustees at Hochessin. A copy of this agreement is still available for review. Following Bill Gamble's death, Ken Berry was appointed treasurer of Centre Meeting funds. In the 1980’s a weekly Meeting for Worship was again started. During the early 1990’s there were multiple meetings between Centre Meeting, which received Preparatory Meeting status in 1990 and Hochessin Meeting; leading to the establishment of a full Monthly Meeting status again in 1996 for Centre. Marion Biehn and Sanford Smith were very helpful in working through this separating process.

The Graveyard has been used continually since the initial purchase of the land, but many of the early graves are now unmarked because the early ban on ostentatious headstones meant most were of poor quality sandstone and have disappeared through the weathering process. In 1850 this was changed, allowing more permanent stone tablets of a plain design less than one foot high. Good records of burials in the graveyard have been maintained and are available. A full survey of the graveyard was last performed in 1994.

Just across the road from the Meeting House a school house was built in 1780 and was operated as a private Friends school until 1854, at which time it was absorbed into the state school system and continued to function as a public school until sometime in the 1940’s. After it was no longer used as a school, it was rented out as a residence until 1995 when it again returned to function as the meeting place for children’s first day school.

Buildings of the age of those at Centre Meeting require a lot of maintenance, however it is not always easy to decide what should be done. In the mid 1990’s there were detailed discussions about the goals and directions for the maintenance of the buildings at Centre Meeting. With direction from Architect George Whiteside, the meeting came to an agreement that the meeting house had the most historical value, and any repairs and remodeling would try to preserve original material and try to restore as much as possible based on the expense and functional impact. The goal is for the meeting house to serve as a functional meeting house for Centre, but we will also try to maintain the original architecture when possible. The schoolhouse has some historical value but much less, and our over riding concern will be to have any reconstruction provide for our functional needs with the goal of maintaining the historical appearance of the exterior property but not absolutely the interior of the schoolhouse. The caretaker's house is not felt to have historical significance and will be maintained to enhance the whole property and be a safe and appealing home for the caretaker.

The current brick meeting house was started in 1796 and complete in approximately 1803. There has been extensive reconstruction since the completion, however most of the dates of the early work are not available. There were initially out house bathroom facilities which are still present in the east end of the horse sheds. The front over hang roof was added sometime between 1890 and 1920. The interior was initially white washed then painted, starting with yellow going to brown and finally white. All the interior paint was removed in 1997, the plaster repaired, then repainted with a white latex paint. The floor in the meeting house had a major reconstruction probably sometime between 1940 to 1955. All the flooring in the west side was replaced as well as the subfloor structure. The current floor was obtained from a barn. The subfloor on the east was also replaced but the flooring boards may be close to original. The riser on the west side had been lowered at some unknown time and was again raised to be similar to the east side during the reconstruction in 1997. The divider which originally divided the meeting into women and men sides is felt to be original. All windows and by-fold doors are felt to be original. The wainscoting had all been replaced on the west side with only a small amount of original left in the north east wall of the east side. All the replaced wainscoting was removed and replaced in the 1997 reconstruction. On the exterior, the horse sheds are original as is the mounting stone in the front of the meeting house. The roof was replaced with quarter sewn oak shingles in 1995. The previous roof had been applied by Winterthur in a deal Levis Phipps made in which Wintertur got the old shingles for construction of the interior patio cobble stone walk at the museum if they removed them and applied new ones to the meeting house. The kitchen, current restroom, septic system, and well were all added in 1975 under the direction of Architect Albert Kruse.

The graveyard is still available for burials. In the early 1980’s Ken Berry had extensive tree work performed in the trees in the graveyard. From 1989 to 1991 extensive repairs of the grave yard wall were also undertaken.

The current building was probably built from 1780 to 1790. A major change with elevation of the roof line and removal of a large porch and roof over hang was removed in the late 1800’s. It has had a new roof applied in the early 1990’s. The date of adding the indoor toilet, septic system, and well are not known.

This house was built in approximately 1890 for the use of a caretaker of Centre Meeting. It was occupied in the middle 1900’s by Mary Bradley who served as the caretaker until her death in the early 1980’s. Her daughter then took over the responsibilities, however this did not work out and she was asked to leave in 1988. At this time the house was in very poor maintenance. New siding, windows, roof, heating system, septic system, extensive porch repairs, and kitchen have all been required over the last 10 years. Donald Harley has been the caretaker since 1988 and has also done extensive upgrading of the yard, trees, and gardens.

The current endowment is due to the stewardship of the Centre Meeting committee during a time when there was not a lot of spiritual activity in the way of weekly Meetings for Worship. The concerns of William Gamble and Ken Berry who were the treasurers, along with John Hollingsworth, Levis Phipps, and Ted Pennock were primarily responsible for the establishment this endowment. We also thank John Pittenger for historical research and reminding us to remember those who gave the money and made possible the endowment. The current endowment is under professional management with the monitoring by the board of trustees. A full report is given at the annual corporation meeting held in March.

R. Elizabeth Ewart Casey Trust: This is a trust held by the Trust Department of Wilmington Trust Bank of which Centre Meeting receives 1/6 of the earnings each year. I do not have much information on Ms. Casey who died December 14, 1985 at age 74. The will does not give any specific direction as to the use of the funds. Centre owns no assets in this trust, as we only receive money from the annual earnings.

Jesse Chandler Fund: Jesse was a miller on the Brandywine River, who in 1904 established by codicil a gift to Centre Monthly Meeting of Friends. This was to be in trust to "apply the income for the maintenance and repair of the burying ground on the said property, and if any is left to use for the maintenance and support of the school on the said property". The gift was received in 1922 in Union Bank stock. Through corporate changes this became Wilmington Trust stock.

Mary S. Gamble Fund: Mary was the wife of William Gamble who was the treasurer of Centre from 1954 until his death in the mid 1980’s. A bequest was made at Mary’s death for "care and maintenance of all buildings and burial ground at Centre". Both income and principle was to be used for these purposes. The major repairs of the interior of the meeting house in 1997 used money from this fund in memory of Mary Gamble.

Reserve and Residual Fund: Levis Phipps was a farmer close to Centre Meeting and was very instrumental in maintaining the property the middle half of the 1900’s. He also was a private mortgage lender in which he would lend money to individuals in need and then collect back his money over time. He maintained his records in a small black book he carried with him. Upon his death, this black book was given to Centre Meeting and the money collected from these outstanding loans was slowly collected and placed in a Fund called the Reserve and Residual Fund to be used for general operating expenses and maintenance of Centre Meeting.

Robert Quillan Memorial Fund: Robert lived in the school house in the last half of the 1980’s and was very active in the initiation of Centre Meeting as a Meeting for Worship. He sustained a premature and sudden death and this fund is donations from his memorial. A bench which sits in the graveyard was purchased in his memory.

Albert Kruse Fund: Albert was an Architect who worked with many of the large estates on preservation projects in northern Delaware. He was involved with the Centre Meeting Committee doing many projects at Centre in the mid 1970’s and designed the kitchen and bathroom addition to the meeting house in 1975. This fund was used to build the kitchen and plumbing work in 1975. Some of the total cost of the project was obtained from other donations and funds.

Joseph Nichols Fund: A bequest made, we have no information on this person or direction for the bequest.

Rachel Huey Fund: A bequest made, we have no information on this person or direction for the bequest.

Emaline Seal Fund: A bequest made, we have no information on this person or direction for the bequest.

Sara Dilworth Fund: A bequest made, we have no information on this person or direction for the bequest.

Mary Passmore Fund: A bequest made, we have no information on this person or direction for the bequest.

As noted earlier, the money from the endowment is under professional management. Bookkeeping by the treasurer and trustees do not keep the funds from each bequest separate, but we do try to honor the stated goals of the bequests while at the same time trying to be careful with the use of the money. For bequests in the future, donations for specific goals will be accepted if they can be quickly accomplished, such as the purchase of a specific item. All bequests will be notified that we will use the money as much as possible for the stated goal, however it will ultimately be used as decided in Meeting for Worship for Business to be in the best interest of Centre Meeting. We are not able to keep detailed book keeping records of each bequest over a long period of time, and we can not effectively manage many separate small funds.

Draft Approved by trustees for consideration by Meeting

Centre Meeting, PO Box 455, Rockland, DE 19732

Meeting Telephone 302/428-1980 OR Schoolhouse -1970