Midlothian Friends Meeting (Quakers)
Construction of our Meetinghouse and Universal Access
Serious efforts to obtain a permanent home for Midlothian Friends Meeting first began in 2000, after the move to Stony Point school in 1999. Once funds were raised to make a down-payment on a permanent home, we found the Preservation Road site, which was then occupied by a small family but seemed uniquely qualified to be a meetinghouse. The property was purchased in October 2002 for $114,00 using loans from another Quaker meeting, Homewood Friends.
Work then began on turning the house into a meetinghouse. "Way opened" for the Meeting to make slow but progressive additions and renovations:
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In 2005 a separate RE building was built with a grant from Friends General Conference (FGC). A concrete walkway and deck connects the building to the meetinghouse front door.
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The developer of the Preserve neighborhood gifted us another two acres and a large parking lot in 2006, giving us four acres nestled at the front of the 100 acre Preserve development.
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Another grant from Friends General Conference (FGC) was instrumental in a universal access project, completed in 2015. A concrete pad was built about 5' out from the house, at a height that allows a wheelchair or walker to enter without a barrier. A concrete walkway was then built directly from the parking lot to the concrete pad in front of the building. (Note: the building is universally accessible on the first floor, and plans are being made to add an outside ramp to the second floor)
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After building the concrete pad in front of the meetinghouse, we built a roof over it, and attached it to the current building, creating a porch that gives us more space for assembly outside. The front porch is where we hold our Ice Cream Socials.
