Chichester Friends Meetinghouse

Chichester Friends Meetinghouse is a historic Quaker meeting house at 611 Meetinghouse Road near Boothwyn, in Upper Chichester Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. This area, near Chester was one of the earliest areas settled by Quakers in Pennsylvania. The meetinghouse, first built in 1688, then rebuilt after a fire in 1769 reflects this early Quaker heritage. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
In the year that William Penn first arrived in Pennsylvania, 1682, the Chichester Meeting was first organized as an "indulged meeting" or subsidiary meeting of the Uplands Monthly Meeting of present-day Chester. The Uplands Meeting had been organized by Robert Wade, who arrived in the area in 1675, from earlier Quaker settlements in New Jersey. Chichester attained the status of Monthly Meeting in March, 1684. This group of Friends met in member's homes until about 1688 when a 24-foot square meetinghouse was built on two acres. The land was sold on October 4, 1688 by James Brown for 1 shilling and sixpence "only for the use of the people of God, called Quakers." In January 1769 the meetinghouse burned down, and later that year a 33 by 38-foot building was erected in its place.

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