Miami Monthly Meeting Historic District

At the crest of a hill at Fourth and High Streets in Waynesville, Ohio, a cluster of Quaker buildings marks the center of the Miami Monthly Meeting, organized in 1803 as the first monthly meeting in southwestern Ohio with independent authority for business. The district includes the White Brick Meeting House of 1811, the Red Brick Meeting House of 1836 built by the Orthodox branch, the Friends Cemetery established in 1804, the 1905 Friends Home, a bank barn and a garage. The White Brick retains its plain brick walls, a paneled partition dividing men's and women's halves, and facing benches for elders. The cemetery holds simple markers, and its ownership was split between Orthodox and Hicksite members in 1877. The Friends Home shows restrained Classical Revival detailing. The meeting drew hundreds of Quaker families from the South and East in its early years, and Quakerism spread across western Ohio and Indiana from here. The district was recognized for its religious and architectural importance.