Richmond (VA) Friends Meeting

Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

Richmond Friends Meeting History Highlights

by | Dec 18, 2008 | History - RFM

  • Richmond Friends Meeting (RFM) organized in 1795, and soon built its first Meeting House at 19th and Cary Street in Church Hill. This was the second oldest “church” in Richmond.  We have a long history of religious observance and social justice within the Richmond community. In 1995, we celebrated our 200th birthday.
  • Richmond area Quakers established the Virginia Abolition Society in 1790. With the Civil War, RFM established the Friends Asylum for Colored Orphans, now called the Friends Association for Children. After slave emancipation, RFM member Sarah Smiley and other Quaker women helped start a school for over 1,000 free black adults and children in Richmond.
  • RFM purchased the 4500 Kensington Avenue property in 1957. (The Colonial Place Christian Church, an affiliate of the Disciples of Christ, built the original building in 1913. The educational annex was added in 1931.) The cost of the 4500 Kensington Avenue property in 1957 was approximately $17,500.
  • RFM has provided office and meeting space to hundreds of community groups. Religious groups that have used the 4500 Kensington Avenue property for their programs include the Congregation Or Ami, the Metropolitan Christian Church, an unaffiliated Roman Catholic group and Muslims.
  • In the 1960s, RFM provided office and meeting space to the Richmond Area Association for Retarded Children. In 1967, RFM provided office space and volunteer support to the statewide antiwar Vietnam Summer Project. In 1971, RFM provided office space to the statewide Virginia Council for Human Relations until the Richmond Zoning Board opposition and a neighborhood petition of 1,200 signatures forced the interracial organization to relocate.
  • Since 1957, RFM has provided financial assistance and social support to Russian, Vietnamese, Cambodian and Central American refugees, who have relocated to the Richmond area.
  • The 4500 Kensington Avenue property has been the site of countless weddings and memorial ceremonies, not only of Friends but also from the community at large.
  • In 1986, RFM, overflowing with new attenders, established new worship groups in Ashland and Midlothian. Midlothian has since become a full-fledged meeting.

See below for a slide show of History of Quakers in Central Virginia