Twelfth Street Meeting House, Quaker meeting house in Newtown, Pennsylvania, US
The Twelfth Street Meeting House is a brick building constructed in Philadelphia with Federal-style architectural features and a straightforward, functional design typical of early 19th-century meeting spaces. The structure displays the simple proportions and clean lines characteristic of buildings built for Quaker worship and community gatherings.
Built 1812–1813 on South 12th Street, the meeting house reused roof trusses, windows, doors and columns from Philadelphia's Greater Meeting House of 1755, which carpenter John D. Smith dismantled. After the 1827 Quaker schism it stayed with the Orthodox Friends. In 1956 the Orthodox and Hicksite meetings merged, and the building was sold to PSFS in 1971; it was dismantled in 1972 and rebuilt at George School, Newtown, in 1973–1974.
The building's name comes from its original site on South 12th Street, and its main meeting room reproduced the square interior of the 1755 Greater Meeting House, reusing some of that building's benches. From 1874 to 1925 the adjacent William Penn Charter School held daily meeting there. Since 1974 it has served as the meeting house for George School in Newtown, Bucks County.
The building is located in Philadelphia and welcomes visitors interested in Quaker history and architecture. The surrounding area is easy to explore on foot and connects to other historical sites throughout the city.
In the 1930s a floor joist was found bearing the initials "AC + IC" and the date 1755 spelled out in nailheads, taken as the signature of Greater Meeting House builders Abraham Carlisle and Isaac Coates. The joist travelled with the salvaged timbers when the building was dismantled in summer 1972 and rebuilt at Newtown in 1973–1974.
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