Farewell Devonshire Street, hello Pilgrim House

For the first time since 1868, Quakers are not meeting for worship on Devonshire Street in Sydney. The increasing financial pressure of owning heritage-listed property in the City of Sydney, including regulatory changes and steeply increasing insurance costs, made it untenable for us to keep the property.

Many of us are sad to leave behind the history that happened in that building, to no longer continue meeting between the walls that housed so much community.

Many of us are looking forward to shedding the burden the property was putting on the meeting, financially and in the energy and effort that was needed to manage it.

We are now meeting in a light, pleasant room in Pilgrim House on Pitt street. We have downsized. A church can be anywhere two or more are gathered together.

A photograph of the 1903 Devonshire Street Meeting House. A brick gabled hall with stone steps up to its front where three arches frame its doorway. A photograph of the three large windows looking out of the new meeting room in Pilgrim House. The frames are painted white and outside can be seen bright green leaves and behind them the facade of another building across the street

More about the sale:

https://www.quakersaustralia.info/organisation/regional-meetings/new-south-wales-regional-meeting/sale-devonshire-street-meeting-house

More about the meeting houses:

https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/1725609

https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/1892090