Bart Friends Meetinghouse (Quaker)
Christiana, Lancaster County, PA
Built in 1825
Above: Bart Quaker Meetinghouse in Lancaster County, PA. Stucco covers the building’s stone walls.
Above: The front facade
History in Churches and Cemeteries
of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania:
Bart Friends Meetinghouse
1820 - Meetings set up and meetings held in schoolhouse of Jeremiah Cooper
1825 - Meetinghouse built
1828 - Orthodox / Hicksite separation. Orthodox element in this meeting erected a meetinghouse east of this site.
1925 - Meeting laid down.
1950 - 1956 - Location of Bart Mennonite Church
Source: Churches and Cemeteries of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, A. Hunter Rineer, 1993, page 382, LancasterHistory.
Above: Panelled front entry, with history placard on front door
Above: History placard on the front door
Description in Our Present Past (1985)
By the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County:
“Bart Friends Meeting, Upper Valley Road, northeast corner at Quaker Church Road; 1825; one and one-half story, three bay stuccoed stone Federal meetinghouse; gable roof, central entry with double doors; piazza with round columns; twelve over eight window sash, maintained by Bart Historical Society; Truman and Jeremiah Cooper were important figures in the construction of this building.” Our Present Past, page 304, Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County.
Above: 12-over-8 window sash
Above: Image source: Friends Meeting Houses, T. C. Matlack, ca. 1934, TriCollege Libraries
The Othodox Bart Friends Meetinghouse
1847 to 1880:
Above: This meeting was formed at the 1828 separation of the Hicksite and Orthodox groups. Between 1831 and 1847 the Orthodox meetings were held in the home of Truman Cooper. These Orthodox Friends then built this stone meetinghouse, in 1847. The meeting was laid down in 1880. The meetinghouse was later removed and the graves were relocated. The site became a plowed field with no trace of the building. Image source: TriCollege Libraries.