OUR HISTORY
A HISTORY OF STATE COLLEGE FRIENDS MEETING AND OTHER CENTRE COUNTY QUAKER INSTITUTIONS
Our meeting originated in 1912 when some Quaker college students began meeting informally in the home of a newly-arrived local Quaker family. A decade later, in 1925, they held their first official meeting for business, supported by Friends from both Philadelphia and Baltimore Yearly Meetings. And in 1927 they moved into a meetinghouse they built at 318 South Atherton Street (now the home of Out of the Cold Homeless Services). That meetinghouse was enlarged in 1948-50, as the meeting evolved from primarily students to primarily adult residents. And in 1980 the present 611 East Prospect Avenue meetinghouse and adjacent education wing were built to accommodate the meeting’s needs as it continued to grow.
Prior to the founding of State College Friends Meeting three other meetings had existed in Centre County. Around 1800 Quakers began moving into both the Halfmoon Valley and Bald Eagle Valley, primarily from Philadelphia-area meetings. Together they created Centre Monthly Meeting, consisting of two “preparative” meetings in the two valleys. A bit later other Quakers moved to Bellefonte, where a third meeting was formed. All three meetings built meetinghouses and also created cemeteries.
In the last quarter of the twentieth century two additional Quaker institutions were envisioned and created by members of the State College Friends Meeting: State College Friends School (in 1980) and Foxdale Village Quaker-Directed Continuing Care Retirement Community (in 1990).
The following links are excerpted from Doug Miller’s recently published book, Quakers in Centre County, Pennsylvania: Celebrating the Centennial of the State College Friends Meeting. It is available at the SCFM library and the Foxdale Village Archive Room.
It can be also be downloaded to your device here.
We invite you to read more about the history of our meeting and of these other Quaker meetings/institutions by clicking on the links below: