{"nrhp_refnum":"93001610","name":"Race Street Friends Meetinghouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1515 Cherry St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.95582619700008,"lon":-75.16517062199995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1993-11-04","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1993-11-04","areas_of_significance":["Religion","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick Quaker meetinghouse at Race and Cherry Streets at 15th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, built in 1856 and occupied in 1857. It is part of a complex that includes a 1975 Friends Center building attached on the east side.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that the meetinghouse was central to the Hicksite Yearly Meeting and to women's leadership in Quaker governance. It cites the building's association with Lucretia Mott and Hannah Clothier Hull, and claims that the Race Street women were the only official religious body in the United States to actively support women's suffrage. It also points to the role of its women in abolition and peace activism.","narrative":"Built in 1856 and occupied in 1857, the Race Street Meetinghouse is a brick Quaker meetinghouse in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, set on a lot at Race and Cherry Streets. Its two meeting rooms were built for the Men's and Women's Yearly Meetings of the Hicksite branch, and its interior includes a wide central hall with a broad staircase. The building served as the site of the Hicksite Yearly Meeting from 1857 to 1955, when the Hicksite and Orthodox factions reconciled. Its significance rests on the role of women within the congregation. Quaker women here held positions in church government, joined joint committees, and in 1924 Jane Rushmore became the first woman to serve as clerk of the combined Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. The meetinghouse is also linked to Lucretia Mott, who spoke here on abolition and women's medical education, and to Hannah Clothier Hull, a peace activist. In 1914, the Yearly Meeting endorsed federal women's suffrage and lobbied senators for it.","period_of_significance":"1857-1924","architect_builder":"George Chandlee; Nathan Smedley; William Eyre","architectural_style":"Quaker Plain Style","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"The building is still used as a meetinghouse for the Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and maintains a high degree of integrity.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.965062-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/93001610_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93001610/c102a57efb-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93001610/c102a57efb-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Beyond My Ken","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Race_Street_Meetinghouse_and_Visitors_Center_from_Cherry_Street.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Beyond My Ken</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Race_Street_Meetinghouse_and_Visitors_Center_from_Cherry_Street.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71994367","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_Street_Friends_Meetinghouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7278921"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/race-street-friends-meetinghouse-93001610/"}