The Adelaide meeting house of the Religious Society of Friends ("

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...

") is situated on Pennington Terrace,

North Adelaide, South Australia North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct (Australia), precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. Laid out in a grid plan in three section ...

, literally in the shadow of St Peter's Cathedral, on its west side. It is substantially made of timber, the only wooden church building in the City. Constructed in 1840, it is also the oldest wooden building in Adelaide, the oldest Quaker building in Australia and likely the oldest building of worship in South Australia by the date of completion of the current building, although

Trinity Church Adelaide Trinity Church Adelaide, formerly known as Holy Trinity Church and later Trinity City, is an Australian evangelical Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican church located at 88 North Terrace, Adelaide, North Terrace in the city of Adelaide, ...

is the oldest by foundations. Besides Sunday meetings, weddings and the like, it has also hosted secular meetings, particularly for peace, education, temperance and other social causes. It also served briefly for Adelaide's Presbyterian congregation prior to construction of the Church of Scotland building on

Grenfell Street Grenfell Street () is a major street in the north-east quarter of the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. The street runs west-east from King William Street to East Terrace. Its intersection with Pulteney Street is formed by Hindmarsh Squa ...

, also for the North Adelaide congregation of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. The land on which it stands was donated to the Society of Friends by church member J. Barton Hack. He also had the contract for construction of the

prefabricated building A prefabricated building, informally a prefab, is a building that is manufactured and constructed using prefabrication. It consists of factory-made components or units that are transported and assembled on-site to form the complete building. Vario ...

, supplied by Henry Manning of London, around 1840.Below the Pulpit - The Friends
''South Australian Register'' 7 September 1903 p.5 accessed 21 August 2011
A nice, colourful article (The rectory of

Trinity Church, Adelaide Trinity Church Adelaide, formerly known as Holy Trinity Church and later Trinity City, is an Australian evangelical Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican church located at 88 North Terrace, Adelaide, North Terrace in the city of Adelaide, ...

was also a "

Manning's portable cottage A prefabricated building, informally a prefab, is a building that is manufactured and constructed using prefabrication. It consists of factory-made components or units that are transported and assembled on-site to form the complete building. Vario ...

".) Despite a prohibition on churchyard burials in the City of Adelaide, there were around seventeen graves in its tiny yard, including that of J. B. Hack's child. and a son and first wife of

Joseph Barritt Joseph Barritt (1816 – 17 August 1881) was a pastoralist and politician in the colony of South Australia. History Barritt was born in Hazeleigh, near Maldon, Essex, and emigrated to South Australia on the ''Anna Robertson'' in 1839 with an int ...

. From 1858 no further burials took place there, as a separate area had been reserved for Quakers at the

West Terrace Cemetery The West Terrace Cemetery, formerly Adelaide Public Cemetery is a cemetery in Adelaide, South Australia. It is the state's oldest cemetery, first appearing on Colonel William Light's 1837 plan of the Adelaide city centre, to the south-west of ...

.Society of Friends
''The Mail (Adelaide)'' 28 July 1928 p.11 accessed 6 September 2011
A potted history of South Australian Quakers, including details on outpost at Mount Barker The meeting house significantly predates St. Peter's Cathedral, the land for which was purchased in 1862 and the foundation stone laid in 1869. A condition of the land sale was provision of a

right of way A right of way (also right-of-way) is a specific route that people, animals, vehicles, watercraft, or utility lines travel, or the legal status that gives them the right to do so. Rights-of-way in the physical sense include controlled-access h ...

to the meeting house. On 28 May 1981, the building was listed on the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

References

Further reading