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Exterior Photographs
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This
small meeting house is unusual among those in Burlington County in being
constructed of stone rather than the brick examples more common on the
Jersey side of the Delaware. The ironstone of which it is built was
quarried from the mount on which the building stands. In
1743, Friends, living near what was then known as Shreve's Mount, asked
the Burlington Monthly Meeting of Friends for permission to meet in a
schoolhouse at the mount. The congregation increased, and in 1775 erected
this meeting house. The builder was Samuel Smith, whose name is inscribed
on a stone above the front doorway. As the number of practicing Quakers
declined, the meeting was "laid down" or closed in 1871.
Nevertheless, as was customary among the Friends, the building was
maintained by the Mount Holly Monthly Meeting and used occasionally for
worship and First-day school. It reopened for worship on a regular basis
in 1941.
The
Arney's Mount Meeting is in remarkably intact condition. On the exterior,
12/1Z shuttered sash light the meeting room, while smaller 8/8 windows
light the gallery. Electricity and heating have never been installed, nor
has the woodwork been painted. This includes panels, which can be used to
close off or open the gallery running around three sides of the interior,
and which rise into the attic. The
burying ground is adjacent to the meeting and is surrounded by a sandstone
wall erected in 1870. Although, as was the early Friends' custom, the
oldest graves are not marked, records indicate that burials pre-date
construction of the Meeting House by many years. Families that have used
the burial ground include many significant in the history of the area,
including "Lippincott", "Shreve", "Gaskill",
and "Newbold".
Link:
www.pym.org/burlington-qm/arneys-mount.htm
Source: www.co.burlington.nj.us
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