Providence Meeting House

Providence Meeting House memorializes this region's Quaker pioneers and early settlers. The highly respected Society of Friends has been uniquely identified with our state since the day of its founder, William Penn. The Society of Friends' first settlement in our part of the state appears to have been at Uniontown in about 1769.

In 1776, this group was reported to consist of 18 families residing about Uniontown, Redstone, and Brownsville. These families formed the nucleus of what was to become the Redstone Monthly Meeting, of which Providence Meeting became a branch. The Redstone Meeting was formally “set off ” on April 26, 1793, from the parent Westland Monthly Meeting in Virginia. Besides Fayette Co., Redstone Meeting appears to have included parts of Westmoreland Co. and Monongalia Co. in West Virginia.

In 1785, Mr. John Cope migrated from West Chester, Pa., to this state section. He found the facilities for religious worship unsatisfactory, possibly due to the distance from other religious groups. The available information does not indicate whether John Cope was a member of the Society of Friends then. The record states that John Cope and a group of associates received a charter for a “Preparative Meeting ” in 1789. This suggests that the Providence Meeting was a probationary or introductory congregation. The recognition of the Providence Meeting may have been secured through the Westland Meeting in Virginia, since the date is before the independent recognition of the Redstone Meeting. Hinshaw mentions various other branches of the Redstone Meeting.

The Cope group purchased fifteen acres of land and erected a log structure on the site now occupied by the present building. This was the beginning of the Providence Meeting. It was a beautiful hilltop location with an inspiring view. Here, John Cope has a final resting place in the adjoining cemetery. It soon became apparent to the new meeting members that the log building did not properly satisfy their needs.

The construction of a more substantial meeting house was completed in 1793. It consisted of stone walls with hewn logs laid on the ground and covered with a wooden flooring. Rough benches, made by the meeting members, constituted the furnishings. Open fireplaces were built into the walls at each end of the building. The Society of Friends believed in education, and a subscription school was opened on the property. Parents of the pupils in school paid their proportionate share of the cost of operating the school. When a public school system was provided by the State of Pennsylvania, the Friends School closed.

Redstone quarterly meeting records indicate that the Providence Meeting was fully recognized and established in 1817. The most active period of the Provident Meeting appears to have been from the date of organization until about 1832. A gradual loss of vitality set in after this time. Hinshaw states that death and removals reduced the membership so much that the remaining members were transferred to the Redstone Meeting at Brownsville between 1832 and 1870. Mr. Binns recalled that the meetings of Providence Friends were abandoned in 1880.

By 1893, the empty stone building of 1793 was in disrepair. Mrs. Elma Cope Binns and her associates set about the construction of a memorial building on the place where the Providence Meeting house stood. The stone and other materials remaining from the old structure were used to erect a somewhat reduced-sized building. According to Hinshaw, this reconstruction was carried out in 1895 by Mrs. Mary Binns, a descendant of the early Quakers.

The relationship between Mary and Elma Binns is not presently clear. The memorial building was intended to serve as a funeral chapel and a shelter for family groups visiting the adjoining cemetery. Fourteen of the fifteen acres of the ground purchased had been sold before this time, and a single acre remained in the possession of Providence Meeting.