Quaker Meeting House

Members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) settled in the Lynchburg area in the mid-18th century and met for a time in the home of Sarah Lynch. According to local tradition, the South River Meeting built its first log meetinghouse here ca. 1757 and enlarged it by 1763. After a fire, a frame church was built in 1769, followed by a stone meetinghouse in 1798. Quakers opposed slavery, and the congregation dwindled as members left Virginia early in the 19th century. Meetings here ceased in the 1840s. The meetinghouse was later restored and opened as the Quaker Memorial Presbyterian Church in 1901. John Lynch, Sarah’s son and founder of Lynchburg, is buried in the adjacent cemetery.