The second Providence Friends Meeting House was constructed in the 1790s. After the meeting was laid down, the meeting house began to collapse. The existing building was built in the 1890s as a reduced replica of the original meeting house.
The stone meeting house was built in the 1790s. One source says that it was built in 1793, and the other reports 1797.
Providence Meeting was laid down around 1871. In 1872, the property trustees sold 14 of the 15 acres of land the meeting owned, reserving the meeting house and burial ground. Thereafter, the abandoned meeting house began to collapse.
Members of the Cope family used the stone of the collapsing meeting house to build the existing stone building in the 1890s. The property has been managed by a local descendant for the past decades.
James Purviance sold a tract of 15 acres to the meeting in 1789 (Fayette County Deed C-191). The trustees sold the bulk of this 15-acre tract in 1872, retaining the southwest corner where the meeting house and burial ground were located (Fayette County Deed 25-148). |
