The Hicksite Friends Meeting House was built in
1851
on the corner of Ellis Street and Walnut Street. On Ellis Street,
close to the property line of the church, stood a house. At the
rear
of this residence, parallel with the Meeting House, was a one story
wooden
building which had for years been deserted and padlocked. One day
neighborhood boys decided to examine the interior of this building and
thus satisfy their curiosity. It contained a room with school
desks
of a long ago vintage. Blackboards on the wall were filled with
words
and figures, with chalk and erasers on the shelves. It was
evident
that this had been a schoolroom once, and that one day someone had just
walked out, locked the door, and school was finished there. It is
possible that when the Hicksites separated from the Orthodox Friends a
hundred or more years ago they had established there own school in that
old building next to their Church so that they would be completely on
their
own. When the congregations reunited years ago and the Meeting
House
property was purchased by the American Stores Company, the stipulation
was that the old building was to be retained in the store’s building
program.
The white stone in the wall of the Acme attests to the fact that this
was
done, “1851 E. M.”
