| In 1712, a group of Friends established
Uwchlan Monthly Meeting in Lionville, assembling in members' homes. By
1715, they built a log meeting house and met there until a more
permanent Lionville Meeting House could be built in 1756.
John Downing, owner of the King's Arms
Tavern, gave the Meeting a piece of land near the corner of Lancaster
& Uwchlan Avenue in 1774, on which the new Meeting built a
schoolhouse.
By 1784, Friends living in Milltown
(Downingtown) asked to meet in the Friends Schoolhouse on Sunday
afternoons. The Lionville Friends (later called Uwchlan Meeting)
granted permission and appointed George Thomas and others to
"attend as often as they can and report the sense of the service
of said meeting at close of the season."
By 1802, The Friends in Downings Town
asked to become a separate Meeting. Lionville Meeting denied their
request, but they allowed the Downings Town Friends to become an
indulged Meeting, a kind of recognized worship group.
July 22, 1806 marked the signing of an
agreement for the building of the Meeting House in Downingtown on land
donated by Jenu Roberts. By mid- November, the first marriage, between Elizabeth Downing and John
T. Thomas
had taken place.
In 1811, Uwchlan Meeting granted
Downingtown Friends permission to establish a preparative Meeting
under the care of Uwchlan Meeting.
By 1907, a lack of attenders forced the Lionville Meeting
to be discontinued,
and Downingtown Preparative
Meeting became Uwchlan Monthly Meeting. Downingtown Friends School
began in what was then the Public Library and in 1920 the Meeting
inaugurated a new school building next to the Meeting House. An
addition was added in 1985.
Today, Downingtown Friends Meeting is
one of the fastest growing Meetings in the region.
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