What is Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust?

Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust was born in 2011 from the need to sustain the two-acre campus located at 320 Arch Street in Philadelphia, Pennysylvania, long term, through preservation and programing.

As an outward facing non-profit, the Preservation Trust was created to safeguard the campus and establish this National Historic Landmark as the foremost destination for education and public programming pertaining to the history and future of Quakerism in the United States.

Why is a Preservation Trust needed?

The site has been in continuous use for 220 years, since 1804! In the early 1900s, the meetinghouse began welcoming the public for education and tourism. While community activities have been occurring for well over a century, it became increasingly clear that the campus needed to consider its future in broader terms - to remove stresses related to maintaining a historic property and welcoming the public to learn about the Quaker faith and practice.

To sustain the property and its legacy for generations to come, the Preservation Trust has taken on the responsibility of conserving the historic building and site, developing resources, marketing, and revitalizing the public education programs and spaces.

Help Us Make A Better Place For Friends

Arch Street Meeting House (ASMH) strives to engage with more visitors, worshipers, and those curious about Quakerism. To continue to grow and serve our visitors, we must make improvements. Your support of the A Place For Friends Campaign will empower us to create a more accessible, safe, and open space for an ever-expanding community.

Major improvements are needed at Arch Street Meeting House so we can welcome more visitors and students, make the meetinghouse more energy efficient, and be better stewards by ensuring its preservation.

ASMH has engaged some of the best engineers, architects, preservationists, and history professionals in the region to address these important project goals. In anticipation of record visitation, we will complete these projects by 2026 in conjunction with the Semiquincentennial of the United States.

$2,400,000

Overhaul the existing gas-fired steam boiler by converting it to a high-efficiency heating system.

Add air-conditioning to historic spaces and archives to allow for year-round community use and the preservation of historic collection materials.

$1,200,000

Install fire-suppression sprinklers to preserve and protect the meetinghouse as both a National Historic Landmark and a site on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.

$250,000

Improve the West Room with better lighting systems that allow for more efficiency and control.

$550,000

Update our indoor exhibits to highlight Quakers' inspired, yet imperfect, past through innovative new displays that use audio and video technology to engage more visitors than ever before.

$300,000

Build an endowment to secure the meetinghouse's preservation and protection for the next generation of students, visitors, and Quakers.

Planned Giving

Gifts of appreciated securities are a great way to support the Quaker organizations you value, as there are strong tax advantages to donating shares that have grown in value over the years. Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust partners with Friends Fiduciary to facilitate low-cost stock transfer services.

Charitable gifts can be made with cash, but many are made by donating appreciated assets such as stocks. If you sell appreciated securities to make a charitable gift, you will owe capital gains tax on the proceeds of the sale. However, if you transfer appreciated securities directly to a charity to make a charitable or planned gift, you:

1. Can defer and/or avoid the capital gains tax;

2. Take a charitable deduction for all or a portion of the total fair market value of the securities contributed depending on the type of gift.

Friends Fiduciary can accept appreciated securities for annual and planned gifts to benefit Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust.