Mennonite Meetinghouse

Mennonite Meetinghouse
Mennonite Meetinghouse is located in Philadelphia
Mennonite Meetinghouse
Mennonite Meetinghouse is located in Pennsylvania
Mennonite Meetinghouse
Mennonite Meetinghouse is located in the United States
Mennonite Meetinghouse
Location6119 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Coordinates40°2′28″N 75°10′46″W / 40.04111°N 75.17944°W / 40.04111; -75.17944
Arealess than one acre
Built1770
NRHP reference No.73001663[1]
Added to NRHPJuly 23, 1973

The Mennonite Meetinghouse (Germantown Mennonite Church) is an historic, American Mennonite church building that is located at 6119 Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.[1]

History and architectural features

The first settlers in Germantown in 1683 were Dutch and Germans recruited by William Penn. Most of the settlers had a Mennonite background but joined the Quaker meeting. Sometime around 1690, several families attended non-Quaker services; the subsequently built a log church in 1708. This church was the first Mennonite Church in America. William Rittenhouse was its first minister. The log church was replaced by the present church at the same site in 1770; the replacement was built by Jacob Knorr.[2][3][4]

Trust

The Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust (GMHT) has EIN 23-1884284 as a 501(c)(3) Public Charity. Its mission is "is to protect and maintain the 1770 Germantown Mennonite Meetinghouse, a significant symbol of the first permanent Mennonite settlement in North America, and to interpret and share the history, faith and witness of Mennonites in Germantown from 1683 to the present. We fulfill this mission by: preserving the Meetinghouse and cemetery; maintaining the nearby buildings and grounds; preparing and implementing tours, exhibits, publications, curricula, and public programs; and working with Mennonite churches, conferences and organizations, the Germantown community, and other partners."[5]

GMHT is distinct from the Congregation of Germantown Mennonite Church, a 501(c)(3) Public Charity with EIN 23-1381382.[6]

Further reading

  • Jan Gleysteen and Leonard Gross, Colonial Germantown Mennonites (Cascadia Publishing House, 2007) ISBN 9781931038416
  • Richard Lichty, An Increase in Time: Story Lines of Germantown Mennonite Church and its Historic Trust, 1683-2005 (AMBS Institute of Mennonite Studies, 2015) ISBN 9780936273549

References

  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ^ "The Mennonite Church - Data Pages" (PDF). Historic American Buildings Survey. National Park Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 15, 2013.
  3. ^ "Early History of the Germantown Congregation". The Historic 1770 Germantown Mennonite Meetinghouse. Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust. Retrieved December 15, 2013.
  4. ^ Zyppora Goldberg (July 1972). National Register of Historic Places Registration: Pennsylvania SP Mennonite Meetinghouse. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved January 6, 2026. (Downloading may be slow.)
  5. ^ "Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust". candid.org. Candid. Retrieved February 15, 2026.
  6. ^ "Congregation of Germantown Mennonite Church". candid.org. Candid. Retrieved February 15, 2026.

Media related to Germantown Mennonite Church (Philadelphia) at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.