Goose Creek Friends Meeting and Oakdale Schoolhouse
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Stone Meeting House
Brick Meeting House the Friends Community currently use for meetings
Lincoln Welcome Sign
Oakdale Schoolhouse
Oakdale Schoolhouse plaque
Interior of Oakdale Schoolhouse
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
The Goose Creek Friends Religious Society built their first log meeting house in 1745. As the community grew, they replaced the log meeting house with a stone Meeting House in 1765. In 1815, the community built the small Oakdale Schoolhouse, which not only served as a place for education, but also for social reform. Prior to the Civil War, the Oakdale Schoolhouse educated both Quaker children and children of free African American men, making it one of the first integrated schools in Virginia. As membership continued to increase, the Friends built their current brick Meeting House sometime between 1817 and 1818.