The cause of an early morning fire that damaged the wooden awning and porch at the historic Stony Brook – or Quaker – Meeting House on Quaker Road April 3 is under investigation, according to the Princeton Police Department and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.
Police were sent to the 18th-century fieldstone building, which is near the Princeton Battlefield Park, in response to a fire alarm at 3:25 a.m., and discovered the wooden awning and porch were on fire, according to the Princeton Police Department.
There was smoke inside the building, but the fire did not spread to the interior of the building, police said.
The Princeton Fire Department, the Hopewell Fire Department, the Montgomery Township Fire Department and the Plainsboro Fire Company responded to the fire.
The Princeton Office of Emergency Management and the Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad also responded.
The Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, meet on Sunday mornings for worship at the Stony Brook Meeting House. The original meeting house was built in 1726, but later destroyed by fire. The present fieldstone building was constructed in 1760.
The property at 470 Quaker Road also houses the Princeton Friends School, which was established in 1987, according to its website at www.princetonfriendsschool.org. It is the successor to an earlier school established by the Quakers in 1781. The earlier school closed around 1900.
