Merion Friends Meeting House in Merion Station, Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania is the second oldest Friends meeting house in the United States (after the Third Haven Meeting House in Maryland) and remains the place of worship of the Merion Monthly Meeting of The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The meeting was founded by the first known group of Welsh settlers in the Americas (who arrived in 1682). The meeting house itself was constructed a few years later.
(The name "monthly meeting" reflects the self-governing organization of the Society of Friends. Groups of Quakers who meet each month to conduct business and make decisions regarding their own meetings will meet quarterly with members of other nearby meetings, and will meet yearly with all the Friends in their regional "yearly meeting.")
The meeting house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1999. A preservation campaign is underway to make needed repairs while retaining the original architecture and features.
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Famous quotes containing the words friends, meeting and/or house:
“Have no friends not equal to yourself.”
—Chinese proverb.
“Again, the great number of cultivated men keep each other up to a high standard. The habit of meeting well-read and knowing men teaches the art of omission and selection.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)