Pennsdale Meeting House celebrates 225 years

Quakers have been a part of Pennsylvania’s history since 1675. After William Penn, who was a Quaker, founded the colony in 1681, the number of Quakers increased until in 1699, about half of the colony’s population was believed to be of the Quaker faith, according to historical records.
By the 1790s, Quakers, who received land grants from Penn, had made their way into the Pennsdale area, establishing a meeting house. The current structure, built at Pennsdale in 1799 from stones from a local quarry, still stands and is celebrating 225 years as the longest continuing place of worship in the county.
Fossils of sea creatures are still visible in the stones used to construct the building.
An open house to mark the milestone is scheduled from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday at the meeting house, 443 Village Road. In order to learn more about the Friends Meeting, local Quakers will be available to answer questions about the Meeting’s history, the architecture of the 1799 stone meeting house, and the life of the Meeting today.
Entering the meeting house is like stepping back into the history of the area. The wooden floors, probably milled from trees that were downed to make room for the structure, have been restored to bring out the beauty of the wood grain. Wooden benches placed at different levels echo the simplicity of the building and the faithful worshippers that come each Sunday to meditate in silence.
There are no stained glass windows, nothing ornate inside the meeting house. Although there is central heat, a large fireplace is sometimes lit to offer warmth to those attending the hour-long service and also at Christmas when the meeting house welcomes the community to a carol sing. There is also no indoor plumbing, but a two-seater privy serves as the meeting house’s bathroom.
“When the Quakers came to this area, think how long it had to take them to get here. They had to come on horseback. The shed that’s on the end of the building used to go all the way out, and that’s where the horses were kept,” said Mary Engel, a member of the Pennsdale Meeting.
“When they had a meeting, they probably met for like three hours. We just meet for an hour,” she added.
The Quaker faith was founded in England by George Fox in the mid 1600s.
According to Engel, Fox was led to establish Quakerism because he disagreed with the churches at that time where you had to pay a priest to intercede if you wanted to speak with God.
“He felt everyone could do it directly — you could have direct communication with God,” Engel explained.
Because of this, there are no ministers in a Quaker Meeting.
An affiliate of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Religious Society of Friends, Pennsdale is an unprogrammed Meeting.
This means that, in the life of the Meeting and during a worship service, there is no separate clergy or distinction between clergy and laity. Members and attendees fill either role as they are “inwardly moved” to do so.
“We’re all responsible. It isn’t just one person who stands up there and tells you what to do,” she said.
Believing that “there’s that of God in everyone,” Engel said, Quakers are against killing or enslaving people, which led to them being sympathetic to those fleeing from slavery.
Many of the houses located around the Meeting House were homes for the Quakers who attended the Pennsdale Meeting and many of those people, according to local lore, were involved with the Underground Railroad.
“There’s stories about how at one time they had sheep in the cemetery out here, and they made bleating noises at night, and it was spooky. So the meeting house gained a reputation of being haunted. It kept the mercenaries who were looking for slaves away, so that at night time they could gather the runaways here and put them in the wagons, or wherever they were going to take them, to help them escape,” Engel said.
During times of war, Quakers, in general, became Conscientious Objectors, choosing to serve in ancillary positions in the military rather than in direct combat.
“Quakers were the first ones to refuse to go into military service or to treat people badly,” Engel said.
Quakerism, from its beginnings, has stressed equality at all levels of society and between men and women.
“So much today we take for granted because this has become our way of life, but back when Quakerism was started, there were wealthy people who had fancy clothes and wore hats, and when you met one of them, you had to doff your hat. He refused. So they got thrown in prison because they wouldn’t doff their hat,” Engel said.
“They wouldn’t step off the sidewalk to let the fancy people be the ones in the middle of the sidewalk, and yet, when you think back about it, hey, those were wooden planks that were sidewalks, and it was mud, so that was a big deal. Today. It’s not such a big deal. Men and women were treated equally back at that time-that was unheard of,” she said.
Today, worship meetings are held at 11 a.m. each Sunday, which is called First Day by Quakers, and last for one hour. All are welcome.
More information is available at www.pennsdalefriendsmeeting.org.