Jamestown Historical Society

History. Built in 1786-1787, the Quaker meeting house, 100 yards south of the Windmill on Windmill Hill, is a simple rectangular structure, shingled in a manner similar to the windmill. An earlier meetinghouse had been destroyed by the British during the Revolution, and the current building was built to replace it. But the number of Friends dwindled and the building stood unused for a century.

About 1910, a number of Philadelphia Quakers who had become summer residents reopened the Meetinghouse. Since that time it has been open for Sunday worship every summer.

Open. Please feel free to walk the grounds except when a meeting is in session. For a tour of the interior please contact us for an appointment

Meeting House Timeline

1672  George Fox visited Rhode Island where Quakers had settled as early as 1656 and preached in Newport, Providence, and Narragansett.
1684  Newport Meeting approved a Quarterly Meeting to be held in the home of Nicholas Carr where Jamestown Friends had evidently been meeting for Sunday worship.
1709  Newport Meeting approved the building of a Jamestown Meetinghouse.
1710  Ebenezer Slocumb deeded to the Meeting a half-acre of land on the north side of North Ferry Road (now Eldred Avenue) and the Meetinghouse was built. A clear space in the southeast corner of the old Quaker burying ground indicates where the Meetinghouse probably stood.
1733-34 To be closer to the center of population, which had shifted farther south on the island, the Meetinghouse was moved to the present location at a cost of £114.9.10.
1776  The British occupied the island, burned the Jamestown settlement from ferry to ferry and "possessed themselves of the (Meeting) House which suffered considerably." At this time, many of the inhabitants left the island.

1786  The Newport Monthly Meeting approved the building of the present structure, smaller than the earlier one, on the same site. It was completed in the following year. But the Quaker population dwindled, and sometime the same century the Jamestown membership was dissolved and the Meetinghouse abandoned.
1910(c.)  A number of Philadelphia Quakers who had become summer residents reopened the Meetinghouse. Since that time it has been open for Sunday worship every summer.
1972  The Meetinghouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
1976-77  With matching funds from the Rhode Island Preservation Society, necessary restoration brought the Meetinghouse to good condition.
1996-97  A thorough restoration was completed in 1997 with a grant from the Champlin Foundation. Title to the Quaker Meetinghouse was transferred from the Providence Friends Meeting to the Jamestown Historical Society with the provision that the Meetinghouse would be open for worship during the summers.