Our current Manhattan Meetinghouse was built in 1856 and is home to two Quaker Meetings, a Friends school and various Friends related service organizations. We'll explain the Quaker tradition, starting with today and work backwards. As we work backwards, we'll travel downtown, to lower Manhattan, where our meetinghouses once stood as early as 1674. One meetinghouse was on the site of the former World Trade Center (Liberty Street).
At one time, the merchants of South Street, were mostly Quakers and were known for their unshaking honesty. What wasn't sold immediately by shipcaptains, would be held on consignment by Quaker merchants and sold. Ship captains trusted the Quakers to deliver them for a fee, what was paid for the goods, sometimes years later for the ship's unsold overstock. Quakers don't conduct their business lives in any way differently than they conduct their religious lives.
