11/18/2025
The Friends Meeting House -
The first house of worship in Pottstown was the Friends Meeting House. Said to have been built around 1756 on land donated to the Society of Friends by John Potts, the founder of Pottstown. It was located on the north side of King Street just west of Penn Street. Today this address is 227 King Street.
In 1850, Jesse Ives, a respected citizen, devout Quaker and an abolitionist who was active in the Underground Railroad, recalled that when Washington's army was here in September 1777, he had seen the meeting house being occupied by soldiers.
The original meeting house was described as a one-story brick building, but in 1875 this wood frame structure replaced the original meeting house. This frame building stood for 80 years until February 1955 when the owners, the Christian Missionary Alliance, tore it down for a parking lot.
This is a hi-res scan of the 1914 photo I posted last week. Note the modern curb-cut and driveway leading to the horse shed to the rear of the building. The house just seen to the far left is still standing at 223 King St.