The earliest reported gathering of Friends in Goshenville was in 1702 at the home of Robert Williams. Goshen Preparative Meeting was established soon after in 1703. A log meetinghouse was built in 1709 near the already existing burial grounds at what is now the corner of Paoli Pike and Route 352 (North Chester Road). Chester Quarterly Meeting (now Concord Quarterly Meeting) formally established Goshen as a monthly meeting in 1722 as a result of the division of Chester Monthly Meeting. The original log meetinghouse was replaced by a stone structure in 1738.  When the Hicksite/Orthodox split occurred in 1827, the Orthodox used the west side of the meetinghouse and the Hicksites the east. In 1849, the Orthodox purchased one and a half adjoining acres and built a small, one-story, green serpentine meetinghouse. Goshen Preparative Meeting (Orthodox) was laid down in 1891, and its members went to Whiteland Preparative Meeting. The Whiteland meetinghouse subsequently burned down, and a meetinghouse and school were later built in Malvern by descendants and successors of the Goshen Orthodox Meeting. (If you’ve ever driven the side streets of Malvern and noticed a building that looks a lot like a Quaker meetinghouse, you’ve found the Goshen Monthly Meeting in Malvern!). The burial ground of the Whiteland Preparative Meeting, located near Route 30 and Malin Road in East Whiteland Township, is still under the care of Goshen Monthly Meeting.  

The Hicksites rebuilt their stone meetinghouse in 1855. This is the meetinghouse currently used by Goshen Meeting. From the time of separation until 1939, Goshen Meeting (Hicksite) was one of three preparative meetings that together made up Goshen Monthly Meeting (Hicksite). The other two preparative meetings were Newtown Square and Willistown. In 1939, these three preparative meetings became monthly meetings, and the original Goshen Monthly Meeting (Hicksite) was laid down.

In 1894, the Goshen Grange began to rent the former Orthodox meetinghouse. In 1920, the Grange bought the building and surrounding land from the successors of Goshen Orthodox Meeting for $600. In 1986, the united Meeting bought back the building and land from the Grange for $40,000. 
 
The Goshen Monthly Meeting (Hicksite) and Goshen Monthly Meeting in Malvern (Orthodox) informally reunited in 1942. Summer meetings were held in the Hicksite meetinghouse, and winter meetings in the Malvern meetinghouse which had the convenience of a furnace. The two meetings formally united in 1956. The Malvern meetinghouse and schoolhouse were sold in 1957 and 1961, respectively.

Goshen Friends School was founded by meeting member Barbara Dixon under the care of Goshen Meeting in 1959 when Barbara learned of the need for a kindergarten in the area. The school opened in September 1959 in the west side of the meetinghouse with two teachers and twenty students. Over the years, the meetinghouse’s porch was enclosed and classrooms, offices and a large multi-purpose room were added to the east end of the meetinghouse. In the 1990s, the school expanded into the primary grades using the newly purchased Grange and some portable classrooms In 2004 (?) Goshen Friends School incorporated and became independent of Goshen Monthly Meeting. Goshen Friends School has since built a six-classroom building and an administrative building on the Meeting’s land behind the Grange. 
 
How Does Truth Prosper at Goshen?
 
Since the creation of Goshen Friends School in 1959, much of the Goshen Meeting’s energy has gone into the nurturing the school, and as the school became more independent, the Meeting’s relationship with the school changed. Now that the school is flying on its own, a space has opened and an energy has begun to emerge that has not existed at Goshen Meeting in quite some time. We are taking time to listen to where the Spirit is calling us, both individually and corporately. We are engaged in both waiting worship and active discernment.

[Sources include: tripod: Tri-College Library Catalog; an article, attributed to member Dot Laume, within Goshen Meeting dated 2003; and a visitor’s leaflet dated 12/96.]