Friends Meetinghouse - Mount Pleasant, Ohio - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

The Society of Friends, Ohio Yearly Meeting House now owned by the Ohio Historical Society is the most significant building in the village both architecturally and historically. It was erected at a cost of $12,345 during 1814-15 from locally fired brick. Jacob Ong (1760-1857), a Quaker minister and resident of nearby Smithfield, was the principal architect/builder. The 92 by 60 foot two-story building is typical of the plain meeting houses preferred by Quakers. Brick walls twenty-four inches thick are laid in Flemish bond on all four elevations, and twin entries for men and women grace both the four-bay gable (east) end and the six-bay south side. Windows have plain stone slip sills and lintels. The interior, designed to accommodate 2000 or more persons on stiff-backed benches, has a three-tier minister's gallery on the north side whose occupants faced the auditorium. On the south side and both ends, galleries above the main floor were designated in the original plans as "youth galleries." The auditorium's most distinguishing feature is a partition of poplar panels that could be lowered from the attic with a cogwheel and winch that required four men to operate it, completely dividing the men's side on the east from the women's side on the west. Town lots 79, 81, 83, 85, 87 and out lot 12, occupying approximately six acres were deeded to the original Yearly Meeting trustees Jonathan Taylor, Isaac Parker, James Kinsey, Rouse Taylor, and Horton Howard in 1817. After the schism in 1828, the Orthodox and Hicksite Quakers agreed to share this building, holding separate yearly meetings at different times, and after the Orthodox Quakers had the Wilbur/Gurney split, all three groups shared joint title and met separately. The Hicksite Quakers held the last yearly meeting in this building in 1918. Its significance is enhanced as the site of the second Ohio Anti-Slavery Convention in 1837.

- National Historic Landmark District Nomination

The building has undergone extensive restoration over the years with funding provided by the National Park Service, the Ohio Historical Society and many private donors.

The building is open for tours through the Ohio Historical Society by appointment only.

The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is considered the most significant building in the Mount Pleasant Historic District listed as a National Historic Landmark.