Friends' Boarding Home of the Concord Quarterly Meeting

On Oct. 28, 1890, at the Meeting of Women Friends of Concord Quarterly Meeting, “Lydia H. Hall laid before the meeting a concern...in regard to establishing a Home for friends of limited circumstances, where they might have the comforts which they could not have unaided.” A Committee met at Race Street Meeting House in 1890, and at another meeting held 2mo. 1891, the name was decided upon and an Executive Committee was chosen. The Friends' Boarding Home of Concord Quarterly Meeting was established in 1891 for women only. The first male guest was admitted in 1894, and over the following decade the admission of men became more frequent.

The Home first was located in rented building. In 1893, the Old Main building was erected, which was followed in 1898 by Lydia Hall. In 1928 Nathaniel G. Hickman bequeathed a sum of money to the West Chester Meeting for the purpose of building a home for the elderly. A building was completed in June 1936 adjacent to the earlier buildings as a memorial to Nathaniel Hickman and his brother, Samuel G. Hickman. The Home has been variously known as the West Chester Friends Home, the Friends' Home in West Chester, and, most recently, The Hickman.

The Home was licensed as a nursing facility and in 1975, the Executive Committee was made aware of this fact and realized that they did not meet the federal and state requirements to operate nursing care facilities. Therefore, a phase-out of the infirmary was planned to take place before October 1976, and the minutes reflect a discussion as to whether the Home should consolidate with the Barclay and Friends Hall or replace its facilities with residential buildings and return its status to residential. As part of the phase-out process, some infirmary guests were transferred to the Friends Hall, a nursing care facility also in West Chester, and a fund was established to offer financial assistance to infirmary guests in order to pay the difference between prices at Friends Hall and the Friends Boarding Home.