Intervention Fund
Arch Street Meeting House
(Quaker Religious Society of Friends)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Arch Street Meeting House is the largest active place of Quaker worship in the United States and the “mothership” of Quaker meeting houses to thousands of Quakers throughout Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.
Arch Street Meeting House courtesy Arch Street Meeting House
Arch Street Meeting House courtesy Arch Street Meeting House
Intervention Fund
Arch Street Meeting House
(Quaker Religious Society of Friends)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Arch Street Meeting House is the largest active place of Quaker worship in the United States and the “mothership” of meeting houses to thousands of Quakers throughout Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.
Quakers have used this site continuously since 1682 and erected the current Georgian-style meeting house in 1803. Famed Quaker master-builder Owen Biddle Jr., the author of one of the first circulated books on American architecture, designed the building, which local craftsmen constructed with simple materials to embody the ideals of Quakerism. Still, for its relative grandeur, noted Philadelphia Quaker and abolitionist George Vaux called Arch Street the “Westminster Abbey of Quakerism.” The Quakers of Arch Street were among the founders of Philadelphia and the United States and were leaders in numerous social movements, including abolition and suffrage.
Today, Arch Street remains one of the largest Quaker meeting houses in the world and is home to the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, the Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting, and the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia. Local community, arts, and social justice groups regularly utilize space in the meeting house, and over 45,000 tourists and students visit this National Historic Landmark each year through collaboration with Historic Philadelphia.
In 2023, Philadelphia Gas Works condemned Arch Street Meeting House’s boiler after an unexpected gas leak, leaving the facility without heat. Meeting house leadership explored several solutions while considering cost, safety, and preservation standards, and ultimately identified a unique solution – to purchase an unused boiler from the Glencairn Museum and install it at Arch Street temporarily until a full new HVAC system could be designed and installed.
An Intervention Fund grant awarded in 2023 provided $16,500 to support the costs of removing the old boiler and purchasing the boiler from the museum. This grant allowed Arch Street to prevent long-term closure of the meeting house to the congregation, tourists, and community members due to the lack of heat, and provided time to work with the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to fund a permanent HVAC solution.
Arch Street Meeting House also received a National Fund for Sacred Places grant in 2022.
Arch Street Meeting House by S. Connoly
Arch Street Meeting House by Eddie Einbender-Luks
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