Visitors: Emily B. Stanback
Photographer: Emily B. Stanback
Date: December 18, 2013
URL: http://www.pym.org/arch-street-meeting-house/

According to the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting website, “Construction began on the current walls [of the Arch Street Meeting House] in 1795, to replace the crumbling walls erected soon after the burying ground was deeded to Friends in 1701. As a result of Friends’ plainness testimony, graves were traditionally unmarked, making the construction of walls to establish boundaries and protect the graves that much more important. Despite the lack of marked burial sites, the vault at Arch Street Meeting House contained records of the interments… Most of the burials now lie beneath the parking lot to the rear of the Meeting House.”

The photo gallery contains photographs of the grounds and parking lot.

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LITERARY CONNECTIONS

Charles Brockden Brown
Archival records indicate that Charles Brockden Brown (1771 – 1810) was buried in an unmarked grave in the meeting house grounds.