215 E 15th Street
New York , NY 10003
United States
The Penington Friends House has been creating caring community in New York City since 1897. A multigenerational, collaborative, residence run by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) for Quakers and friendly people, it offers short term guest room accommodations, sublet, and long term residencies. In 2020, it started the year long Bayard Rustin Residency to fund one BIPOC artist or activist working to end systemic Racism in the United States.
MISSION
Since the beginning, PFH has upheld its relatively simple purpose. In the words of an early charter, it aims to: “1) make a home-like place for Friends and those in sympathy with Friends; 2) to make a home-like headquarters for Friendly people, where strangers and visitors may find a temporary boarding place at reasonable cost; and 3) to furnish a place where Friends generally and Friendly people may meet as committees or individuals to confer or procure a meal.”
HISTORY
The Penington Friends House occupies one of five brownstones built in 1870 by the Stuyvesant family. Originally one of five single family residence built in a row along 15th Street, it was purchased by the Quakers in May of 1897. Until the 1980’s it maintained a white table cloth, formal dinner residency. In the 1980s, it became a collaborative living house in which residents share in chores and decision making. It is still a collaborative house with residents ranging from ages 20 to 80, and who are students, artists, non-profit workers, and more.
The house’s exterior and grand parlor have been well preserved. Resent renovations have restored much of its early splendor.
It is important to note that the Penington was started by Quaker women, several of which were abolitionists. Also, the Penington stands on land that was once Peter Stuyvesant’s farm and before that the ancestral home of the Lenape (Delware) people. Once called the Great Bouwerie, Styvesant’s farm extended from present day 5th Street to 17th Street, and from the East River to Fourth Avenue. The location of PFH is ironic because as Governor of New Netherlands from 1646-1664 Peter Stuyvesant tried energetically to keep Quakers out of the entire colony. Today, PFH neighbors the Friends Meetinghouse, Friends Seminary, and all the New York Yearly Meeting Offices. Other Quaker institutions were started in the immediate area including the Hopper House that supports women leaving prison and the Orphanage for Colored Children. At one time, the Penington was the only institution in the community that served meals to people of color.