Appoquinimink Friends Meetinghouse , also known as the Odessa Friends Meetinghouse, is a very small but historic Quaker meetinghouse on Main Street in Odessa, Delaware . It was built in 1785 by David Wilson and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Members of the meeting, including John Hunn and his cousin John Alston, were active in the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman may have hid in the meetinghouse. Measuring about 20 feet (6.1 m) by 22 feet (6.7 m), it may be the smallest brick house of worship in the United States.
12-793: Quakers were some of the earliest settlers in the Odessa area, but the first meetinghouse was not established until 1763 when Friends in Georges Creek applied to the Kennett Monthly Meeting to form a preparative (subsidiary) meeting. They later affiliated with the Duck Creek Monthly Meeting in Smyrna, Delaware and in 1781 applied to move the meeting place to Appoquinimink Bridge (also called Cantwell's Bridge and now called Odessa). A Quaker school, however,
24-718: A Quaker meeting, but rather by a minister, so they were temporarily banned or "read out of the meeting." In 1828 the Orthodox-Hicksite schism greatly reduced the membership of the Appoquinimink Meeting. The locally prominent Corbit family and several other members began attending the Orthodox meetinghouse in Wilmington , but the Duck Creek Monthly Meeting became Hicksite and owned the property. The Alston family, including John Hunn, continued to support
36-608: Is a historic home located at St. Georges , New Castle County, Delaware . It was built in 1828, and is a 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 -story, five bay frame dwelling. It has an asymmetrical floor plan, steeply pitched cross-gable roof, deep one-story verandah , and is in the Gothic Revival style. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. This article about a property in Delaware on
48-574: The Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay . St. Georges was settled before 1730 at the head of the St. Georges Creek. A tavern was built in 1735 and King's Highway was constructed through the settlement in 1762. St. Georges was incorporated as a town in 1825. After being divided by the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and then bypassed by a newer bridge, the town asked to have their charter revoked by
60-650: The North Saint Georges Historic District are listed on the National Register of Historic Places . The community is located in New Castle County District 12 and is represented to the county council by Councilman James W. (Bill) Bell. Saint Georges is in the Colonial School District . It operates William Penn High School . Bloomfield (St. Georges, Delaware) Bloomfield
72-495: The Appoquinimink Meeting. The Meeting became a station on the Underground Railroad and Hunn, along with Thomas Garrett was arrested, then severely fined, for helping fugitive slaves. The meetinghouse's basement and second story, which has a removable panel under the eaves, may have been used to hide escaping slaves. In the early 1870s John Alston was the only active member of the meeting. After he died in 1874,
84-539: The bridge tender and the bridge electrician. One other bridge spanned the C & D Canal before the lift bridge. It was a small pedestrian swing bridge that crossed over the former Saint Georges Locks . It was destroyed when the locks were dismantled during the first widening and deepening (to sea level) of the canal. Bloomfield , the W. Casperson House , Linden Hill , Ethel S. Roy House , St. Georges Cemetery Caretaker's House , St. Georges Presbyterian Church , Starl House , Sutton House (St. Georges, Delaware) , and
96-671: The meetinghouse deteriorated. Some of the rancor from the Orthodox-Hicksite schism may have survived however. The graves of Corbit family members were removed from the Hicksite property in 1900 and reburied in a private plot separated by a brick wall from the burial ground of the meetinghouse. This plot was given to the Wilmington Monthly Meeting in 1970. The building was restored in 1938, opened for worship in 1939, and in 1948 an Appoquinimink congregation
108-650: The state in 1940. The community has at least one civic association, the North Saint Georges Civic Association which represents the community to the New Castle County Council. The Senator William V. Roth Jr. Bridge ( Delaware Route 1 ) passes just west of the community. It is the only cable-stayed bridge in the Delaware Valley and one of the first in the nation. It opened in 1995 as a replacement to
120-439: The still standing St. Georges Bridge , which carries U.S. Route 13 over the community of St. Georges and the canal. The St. Georges Bridge is in turn a replacement for a former lift bridge that sat in the middle of town. That bridge—built in 1923—was knocked down on January 10, 1939, by the 6,000-ton freighter Waukegan . The freighter lost control, hit the north tower of the bridge, and caused it to collapse. Two people died:
132-716: Was established in Appoquinimink in 1735 and continued until the late 1800s. The school building was later used as a parsonage by the Zoar Methodist Episcopal Church and then demolished. The adjacent Methodist church was built in 1885 on land sold to it by the Quakers. David Wilson built the present meetinghouse about 1785, but the building and grounds were not deeded to the Meeting until 1800. Wilson and his wife, Mary Corbit, were not married at
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#1732801125996144-619: Was formed and given title to the property, which had devolved to the State of Delaware. The meeting continues to operate on a regular basis, meeting twice a month (first and third Sundays), as a preparative meeting under the care of the Wilmington Monthly Meeting. St. Georges, Delaware Saint Georges is an unincorporated town and former municipality situated on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in New Castle County , Delaware , United States, approximately midway between
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