A Short History for A Long Legacy

Our meeting originated in 1790 as Centre Monthly Meeting, located in Halfmoon Township, and continued until 1933 when it was laid down. Centre Friends began attending the State College Meeting which was founded in1912 to meet the needs of the Quaker students and a few local residents. The first regular business meeting of the State College Friends Meeting took place in 1925. In 1927, a meetinghouse was built at 318 South Atherton Street (now the home of Out of the Cold Homeless Services); it was enlarged in 1948-50. The present meetinghouse with its adjacent education wing was completed in 1980.

The State College Friends School, founded in 1980 under the care with the meeting, provides students in K-8 grades with an education based on Quaker principles. Child Space, a preschool, is housed in the education wing of the meetinghouse and is independently operated from Friends Meeting.

Foxdale Village is a Quaker-directed retirement community founded by meeting members.

State College Friends Meeting is unusual in being part of two yearly meetings. In the early years, Friends from Baltimore Yearly Meeting and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting supported State College Friends Meeting. When State College Meeting became independent it retained affiliation with both Philadelphia and Baltimore, as a member of the Upper Susquehanna Quarter (PYM) and Centre Quarter (BYM).

Our ties to both PYM and BYM reflect our historic heritage and relationship to both yearly meetings. The earliest Friends in the area (BYM) settled in Halfmoon Township. One old meetinghouse exists near Stormstown today; it is used by the Grange. Friends Cemetary near Stormstown dates from the earliest days of Friends in Centre County. Another old meetinghouse and cemetery are located in Bellefonte.

A History of the Friends Meeting in Centre County, Pennsylvania, by Emily and Elwood Way, offers a full account of local Quaker history.