The Meeting House - Moorestown, NJ
N 39° 57.919 W 074° 56.530
18S E 504938 N 4423909
There are actually two meeting houses on this Quaker school property, both of which are referred to in the Guide Series. The Meeting House from 1802 is still in operation but the one from 1897 is now defunct and serves as a school building.
Waymark Code: WM4JN2
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 08/31/2008
Views: 13
"The Friends School and Meeting House, a group of red brick buildings of Georgian design, is the largest Friends' school in southern New Jersey. Classes are held for more than 350 pupils." --- New Jersey, a Guide to Its Present and Past, 1939; page 621
The original meeting house from 1700 is gone but a historical marker remembers the site. There is a large piece of granite which marks the former home of the Moorestown Quakers. This meeting house is extremely typical and representative of the meeting houses of this era and time period. This meeting house was erected in 1802.
The other Meeting House stands across from the 1802 meeting house. It has since been "laid down" and serves other purposes. From what I can figure out, In 1827, there was a schism among Friends, with the followers of Elias Hicks espousing a simpler form of worship than that sanctioned by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. In Moorestown, the Hicksites retained the 1802 Meeting House (across the road), while the Orthodox built a frame building for worship in 1839 and replaced with this brick building (this waymark) in 1897. The two congregations merged in 1900 and this meeting house, now called the West Building, serves educational purposes.
The following narrative on 1802 building comes from the Moorestown Historic District nomination form and describes this contributing structure:
"Built 1897, Walter Smedley, architect. Colonial Revival, 2 1/2-story, 4-register red Flemish bond brick meetinghouse. Pedimented portico. Molded wood and slate pent cornice. gabled end with two registers faces Main Street. 2-story, 5-register side elevation with columned wood porches and slate roofs. Rear 1-story stair story and bathroom addition c. 1950. - Contributing.”
Physical Address:
118 E. Main Street
Moorestown, NJ 08057
Hours of Worship: 10:00 AM