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Photo, Print, Drawing Merion Friends Meeting House, 615 Montgomery Avenue (changed from Montgomery Avenue & Meetinghouse Lane), Narberth, Montgomery County, PA

[ Photos from Survey HABS PA-145  ]

More Resources

[ Drawings from Survey HABS PA-145  ]
[ Data Pages from Survey HABS PA-145  ]
[ Photo Captions from Survey HABS PA-145  ]
[ pdf version of supplemental pages ]

About this Item

Title

  • Merion Friends Meeting House, 615 Montgomery Avenue (changed from Montgomery Avenue & Meetinghouse Lane), Narberth, Montgomery County, PA

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • Penn, William
  • Price, Joseph
  • Buckley, Mary, historian
  • Mixon, Stanley P., photographer
  • Smith, Delos H., photographer
  • Price, Virginia Barrett, transmitter
  • Lavoie, Catherine C., project manager
  • Wunsch, Aaron V., project manager
  • Arzola, Robert R., project manager
  • Lavoie, Catherine C., historian
  • Wunsch, Aaron V., historian
  • Maksay, Adam, delineator
  • Miller, Roger, delineator
  • Barnard, Christy, delineator
  • Howell, Pamela, delineator
  • Lam, Kevin J., delineator
  • Boucher, Jack E., photographer
  • Unknown, photographer

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  Friends meeting houses
  • -  stone buildings
  • -  T-plan buildings
  • -  Quakers
  • -  religions
  • -  Pennsylvania--Montgomery County--Narberth

Notes

  • -  Significance: The construction of Merion began as early as 1695 and was completed by 1715, making it the oldest Friends Meeting House in the Delaware Valley. Its near cruciform plan is unprecedented in a Friends Meeting House. Many resist the idea that the emigrant Friends would adopt a plan so closely resembling one used by the Anglican Church when they rejected all that such a structure represented. It may be, however, that its unusual configuration reflects the lack of prescribed standards indicative of meeting houses erected by the earliest Quaker settlers. Religious persecution, and their own belief in the unsuitability of "steeple-houses" to Quaker worship, discouraged the Society of Friends members in England and Wales from developing a meeting house building type prior to the 1689 Act of Toleration. Many choose instead to meet in the out-of doors, or in private houses or farm buildings, often even once free to worship openly. Unfettered by the persecution experienced by their English counterparts, Friends who immigrated to the American Colonies explored various architectural possibilities. The builders of Merion Meeting House were among the first generation of Welsh Quaker converts, and the first to settle in Penn's Colony, some arriving as early as 1682. Without a model to emulate, the Merion Friends may have looked to the rural parish churches of their homeland for architectural inspiration for their meeting house. Its early unpatterned design distinguishes it as a departure point in the evolution of the American Friends meeting house in the Delaware Valley. Merion Meeting House is also of interest for its use of English building traditions most notably seen its cruck or bent principal rafters. William Penn preached here.
  • -  Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N817
  • -  Survey number: HABS PA-145
  • -  Building/structure dates: ca. 1695- ca. 1715 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1809 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: ca. 1829 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1849 Subsequent Work
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 98001194

Medium

  • Photo(s): 45
  • Color Transparencies: 2
  • Measured Drawing(s): 3
  • Data Page(s): 36
  • Photo Caption Page(s): 5

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS PA,46-NARB.V,1-

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

  • Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Control Number

  • pa0633

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, William Penn, Joseph Price, Mary Buckley, Catherine C Lavoie, Aaron V Wunsch, Robert R Arzola, et al., Mixon, Stanley P, Delos H Smith, Jack E Boucher, and Unknown, photographer. Merion Friends Meeting House, 615 Montgomery Avenue changed from Montgomery Avenue & Meetinghouse Lane, Narberth, Montgomery County, PA. Pennsylvania Narberth Montgomery County, 1933. translateds by Price, Virginia Barrettmitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/pa0633/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Penn, W., Price, J., Buckley, M., Lavoie, C. C., Wunsch, A. V. [...] Lam, K. J., Mixon, S. P., Smith, D. H., Boucher, J. E. & Unknown, photographer. (1933) Merion Friends Meeting House, 615 Montgomery Avenue changed from Montgomery Avenue & Meetinghouse Lane, Narberth, Montgomery County, PA. Pennsylvania Narberth Montgomery County, 1933. Price, V. B., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/pa0633/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al., photographers by Mixon, Stanley P, et al. Merion Friends Meeting House, 615 Montgomery Avenue changed from Montgomery Avenue & Meetinghouse Lane, Narberth, Montgomery County, PA. trans by Price, Virginia Barrettmitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/pa0633/>.