Goose Creek Meeting House

The Goose Creek Meetinghouse construction began in 1816, and was originally a two-story structure. Quakers (Friends) held their first meeting here in 1819.

 

In 1943, following three days of rain, a sudden windstorm (described as a micro-burst), destroyed the 2nd story. It was war-time, and there was not enough material or money to rebuild the entire structure.

 

At this time, the Orthodox Meeting, which was formed as a splinter group from the Goose Creek Meeting in 1886 and which had been having only sporadic meetings, invited the Goose Creek Meeting to join them for services. The Quakers from the combined Meetings met together in the Orthodox building until the Goose Creek restoration was completed in 1949. The existing Goose Creek Meeting House was restored minus the second story, and with original materials, for more than $30,000. The original two story structure was built for slightly more than $4,000 one hundred thirty years earlier.

 

Upon completion of the Goose Creek Meetinghouse restoration, and after several years of joint worship, the earlier divide that had separated the Goose Creek and Orthodox Meetings had lessened. Those passionate Quakers who had led the dissention of 1886 had passed on, and the younger Quakers no longer understood why they had quarreled in the first place. In 1950, the Goose Creek Religious Society of Friends United was formed and the Orthodox Meeting House was sold as a private residence.

 

Today, the Goose Creek Religious Society of Friends meets weekly on Sunday mornings for silent worship. They are part of the Baltimore Yearly Meeting which covers an area from Southern Virginia to Pennsylvania, excluding the Maryland Eastern Shore (which is Orthodox, and part of the Philadelphia Meeting).