436 Mount Laurel Road, Mount Laurel
Mount Laurel Meeting House
The Mount Laurel Friends Meeting House, also known as the Evesham Friends Meeting House, is listed on the New Jersey State and National Registers of Historic Places. It is a fine representative example of Quaker architecture. With its exceptionally well-preserved interior and ingenious movable room partitions, the Mount Laurel Meeting House is one of the most pristine and intact of the larger meeting houses in New Jersey. It is the second oldest meeting house in Burlington County and is still used for Quaker services.
Constructed of locally quarried stone, it is a large (85’ x 40'), 2-1/2-story structure built in two sections. The eastern five bays were built in 1760; and in 1798 the two-bay western section was added. On the northern facade of the meeting house are lines which indicate that a building was attached. Secondary records related that this section was built in 1698 and measured 30 x 40 feet. There is a faint outline of a foundation approximately this size that can be discerned. This unit was removed in 1828.
Meeting House, side view
Virtually all of the interior is of the period (save for electrical lighting fixtures and a 1877 stove setting in the middle of the floor). Wooden pews, stairways, wide board wainscoting, gallery, support columns, window moldings and doors are all late 18th century. Of particular importance are the ingenious vertically sliding partitions in the center of the meeting room dividing the large room into two separate rooms as necessary. While these paneled sliding partitions were typical features of the larger Quaker meeting houses, few are still completely intact in the state.
In addition to its architectural and religious importance, the meeting house and property was also the site of a military occupation during the Revolutionary War. British troops under the command of General Henry Clinton encamped on the grounds and environs of the Meeting House on June 19, 1778, during the evacuation of British and Hessian forces across New Jersey from Philadelphia to New York City.
Photos below are from the 1936 Historic American Building Survey (HABS)
Meeting House, view from front
Meeting House, side view
Meeting House, interior