Benjaminville Friends Meeting House and Burial Ground

Benjaminville Friends Meeting House and Burial Ground
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	McLean County, Illinois, USA
Nearest city	Holder
Coordinates	40°28′35″N 88°48′22″W / 40.47639°N 88.80611°W / 40.47639; -88.80611
Area	2.5 acres (1.0 ha)
Built	1874
Architectural style	Traditional Quaker, Folk
NRHP reference No.	83003584[1]
Added to NRHP	December 13, 1983

The Benjaminville Friends Meeting House and Burial Ground is a Friends Meeting House of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), located north of the rural village of Holder in McLean County, Illinois. It was once the site of a now-defunct village called Benjaminville, founded in 1856 after Quakers settled the area. More Quakers followed, and the burial ground, then the current meeting house in 1874, were constructed. This site, listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places since 1983, is all that remains of that village.

The burial ground preceded the meeting house, as the site was home to another meeting house that was constructed in 1859. The Benjaminville Meeting House represents a well-constructed example of Quaker meeting house architecture and contains within its design many of the major elements associated with the style. It is unique in that it allowed both male and female friends to worship together in the same room. The burial ground, however, maintains a strict separation, not by gender but by religious affiliation; there are three sections, one for Quakers, one for non-Quakers, and one for distant relatives of both.