Know Thy Neighbor: Tours of Merion Friends Meeting and Grounds

Meet in the Merion Meeting Activities Building, 615 Montgomery Avenue. We will tour the burial ground, the horse sheds and the meeting house. Snacks will be available after the tour.
"Know Thy Neighbor" is a continuing series of conversations intended to share our Quaker history and to open discussions exploring civic and cultural engagement issues with the community.
The first boatload of Quaker refugees from Wales founded Merion Friends Meeting in 1682. In 1695 the now thriving community built a stone meeting house, later to be enlarged. It stood on a well-used path linking the Welsh farms to Philadelphia.
The meeting house was declared a National Historic Landmark by the Department of Interior.
The earliest horse and carriage sheds at Merion were built in the 1790s; those standing currently date from 1810 to 1820.
The first burial at Merion was a two year old who died soon after the Welsh settlers arrived in 1682. Since then an estimated 2700 burials have been added, mostly Quakers, but also many others, including slaves. For 82 years, this was the only place in Lower Merion for burials.