Although there are records of Quakers in our area as early as 1699, and of an established meeting around 1810, the present-day meeting has its origin when a group began to meet regularly in the garden of John DeForest in Stamford in 1948. A preparative meeting was established in January 1949, under the care of Purchase Monthly Meeting, and in March 1953, Stamford Monthly Meeting was formed. Earle E. Estes was the first clerk, and the budget for the first year was $50.
In 1951 the Meeting felt the need for a place of its own, and purchased an old one-room schoolhouse, and a substantial building was soon added, to meet the needs of a growing membership.
In the 50's and 60's, the meeting, in conjunction with the Regional American Friends Service Committee, sponsored annual high-school conferences. A young black woman from the South attended Greenwich High School under the sponsorship of the meeting and later went on to college and a teaching career. The Meeting also sponsored two Hiroshima Maidens, in the United States for treatment of burns received in the atomic blast.
In protest against atomic weapons, member Albert Bigelow sailed his boat into the Pacific test area, in defiance of the military, and was arrested and jailed. During the Vietnam War, the meeting sponsored two Laotian refugees, engaged in draft counseling, and held vigils. A concern of the Meeting was protest against the Gulf War.
The meeting is now growing, and its concerns include support of a soup kitchen and a women's shelter, the Alternatives to Violence Project, friendship with the Jewish group that meets in our meetinghouse, and vigorous discussion groups. There is a feeling of rebirth, coming from increased interaction among our members, the strength of their individual actions, and delight in our reemerging First Day school.