The Meetinghouse @ George School - Newtown, PA - Relocated Structures on Waymarking.com

As this meetinghouse approaches its 200 year anniversary, it is as much a viable and integral part of the community today as it was when it was located in Center City, Philadelphia. It was moved 35 miles along the freeway, 21.52 miles as the crow flies.

The centuries-old roof trusses—measuring 20 feet high by 58 feet wide—wound their way north from Twelfth and Market streets, veering in and out of parked cars and beneath overhead cables, turned right on Spring Garden, then north on Delaware Avenue, the entire caravan seeking the breathing room of Interstate 95 and the final destination. The new home of the Meetinghouse would not be William Penn Charter School, whose students and faculty had used the Twelfth Street Meetinghouse for 50 years, from 1875 to 1925, prior to the school’s move to its present location. The Meetinghouse’s new home was destined to be George School in Bucks County, 35 miles up the Interstate. Source

There is a white, oval stone located on the right side of the meetinghouse, set inside the surrounding bricks beneath the gable, inside the pediment. It bears the date 1813. It is hard to see in the spring and summer months as it is obscured by the surrounding pines. The meetinghouse is open to everyone who wants to attend meeting for worship and has never been limited to the educational community. Also,there is a floor joist, signed “1755 AC + IC” —initials for Abraham Carlisle, the master carpenter, and Isaac Coates, his apprentice. The carpenters’ initials were formed by handmade nails driven into the face of the beam, a pre “John Hancock” of sorts.

I attended meeting for worship at this meeting house and attended classes inside the building as well. Tuesdays and Thursdays, students attend mandatory worship and Sunday as well. During reunion weekends, alumni often times will sit with faculty and the current student body. Truly, the meetinghouse is the center of this campus and community.

The following comes from the George School website Source:

George School's meetinghouse was moved brick by brick from the corner of Twelfth and Chestnut Streets and reassembled in its current home on campus in 1974. The most challenging part of the effort was moving the eight original ceiling trusses in the wee hours of the morning, taking up all three lanes of Interstate 95.

Now a longtime fixture at the corner of Farm Drive and Meetinghouse Lane, the meetinghouse is the spiritual center of campus.

As community members enter for a service, settling into the simple pews, it becomes clear that meeting is a universal time for reflection and consideration of the events of one’s week. Regardless of faith, meeting is a time for all in which a certain slowing—down takes place, a certain healing or tendering seems to go on–a purposeful centering of the mind.