Randolph Friends Meeting House and Cemetery Association
Randolph Friends Meeting House and Cemetery
The Red Tour
Sunday, May 7, 2023
12pm to 5pm
Randolph Friends Meeting House and Cemetery Association
Randolph Friends Meeting House and Cemetery
Event Information
- This year’s program will feature tours highlighting the major goals of the Association’s current preservation program, and an introduction to the one art form some Quakers embraced, “Silhouettes”
- Limited parking is available on Quaker Avenue.
The Randolph Friends Meeting House is New Jersey’s oldest surviving colonial wood-frame Quaker meeting house and oldest colonial Quaker meeting house that retains its original design and structure. The massive oak beams and hand carved benches, hand blown glass and wide plank floors, interior shutters and elders bench are little changed from the days when the pioneer Quaker settlers of northern Mendham Township first met here.
The Meeting house was built on land purchased by the Quakers from Robert Schooley in 1758 for a place to bury and honor the dead. The burying ground contains over 300 graves, including Randolph’s early pioneers, who farmed and developed the Mott Hollow industrial center, major anti-slavery figures, Civil War soldiers and Randolph’s first mayor, Hartshorn-Fitz Randolph.
The site is owned and maintained by an independent non-profit preservation association established in 1898. The Association extensively stabilized and restored the Meeting House during a 30-year effort leading up to the celebration of its 250th anniversary in 2008. A new Preservation Plan adopted in 2019 has the goal of expanding public access by adding parking, accessible paths and a visitors center in time for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the nation in 2026.
