Friends Institute records

When it was established in 1880, the Friends’ Institute for Young Men was located at 112 N. 7th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to offer a reading, lecture, and meeting room where “suitable” periodicals and other literature would be available to young men connected with the Society of Friends. There were approximately 200 original members of the Institute, including Edward Bettle, Jr., Ellis Y. Brown, T. Wistar Brown, John G. Bullock, Richard Cadbury, Howard Comfort, William H. Jenks, John H. Dillingham, John B. Garrett, Robert B. Haines, Josiah Leeds, Charles Roberts, Thomas Scattergood, George Vaux, Asa Wing, Edward M. Wistar, and others.

By 1885, it was concluded that women would be allowed membership, since they served on so many charitable and philanthropic organizations which held meetings in the Institute. It was determined that the efficiency of the Association would increase with female members and that there would be no detrimental effect in including them. At that point, the name changed to the Friends’ Institute.

Around 1892, the Institute moved to 20 S. 12th Street, where later it would share quarters with the American Friends Service Committee. The Institute’s purpose was said “to provide recreational facilities to Friends in the central section of the city.” Charter was granted by the Court of Common Pleas in 1887. At least by the time of the publication of the Inventory of Church Archives in 1942, there was no affiliation with Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and indicates “only a cooperative relationship with the church organization.”

(Information from annual reports of Friends’ Institute and Inventory of Church Archives)