The Falls Friends Meetinghouse (IV) - Fallsington Historic District - Fallsington, PA - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

Fallsington is an authentic 300-year-old quaker settlement. This village pre-dates other Friends historic districts by at least 50 years. Little known, and underrepresented in history books, it is one of the best existing examples of authentic pre-colonial life in America. There is a decent history of this village found in a nice book called The buried past: an archaeological history of Philadelphia By John L. Cotter, Daniel G. Roberts, Michael Parrington. It can be found on Google Books which can be found HERE (page 363-367). One last interesting note, looking at Google Earth, it is clear to see this village, via Main Street, was at one time connected to the Lincoln Highway.

High atop, just under the "A" frame roof, on the right side, there is a a date stone which reads 1841. The structure appears to be in good condition with an addition on the left side. To the rear of the meetinghouse is the friends burial ground. The third meetinghouse also has its own burial ground which is just across the street next to the Schoolmaster's House (1758). In front of this waymark are stables and to the far left (south) is the third meetinghouse where today it is used for children (William Penn Center). Nearby, the Gambrel House is the second meetinghouse. The first meetinghouse is gone forever.

This structure was built accommodate a doctrinal split lasting more than a century within the Society of Friends, by the Orthodox branch. The Hicksite branch continued to worship in the 3rd meetinghouse until the rift was settled. That third meetinghouse is at the very beginning of town, on the left side of the road. This meetinghouse is of fieldstone and stuccoed. Besides being used for Meeting for Worship, it also houses a number of community events hosted by the Falls Meeting.

Anyone interested in learning about Quaker influences in Colonial America are advised strongly to come here. I visited this site with my friends Dennis and Jeff to log a virtual cache and were rewarded with some wonderful sites and history.

At the entrance to the road which leads to this meetinghouse is a large historic marker which describes the history of meetinghouses number 3 & 4 and talks about William Penn's visit to these parts.

In 1971, the Village of Fallsington was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. This nationally-registered historic district takes its name from nearby "Falls of the Delaware." Immediately surrounding the historic district is a neighborhood of residences of various ages, circa 1700's to 1990's. This meetinghouse is a contributing structure to the historic district and the following text, albeit very brief, is excerpted from the original district nomination form submitted to the Department of Interior in 1971.

"Falls Monthly Meeting, 1841, the fourth Meeting House, still in use; attached to an eighteenth century stone school house."
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