Friends Place is a Quaker guest house and learning center that offers affordable group lodging, gathering space, and civic engagement programming just blocks from the nation’s Capitol.
Our Mission
Friends Place on Capitol Hill is a welcoming space that offers hospitality centered in peace, civic education, and justice-based advocacy for learners and leaders of all ages.
Our Vision
We seek a world where every person is empowered and equipped to be a vessel of change, witness, and stewardship in their community and the world.
The Space
Located in Washington, D.C., just four blocks from the U.S. Capitol, Friends Place is an ideal location for school, church, or community groups bringing young people to Washington D.C., on trips to promote civic engagement.
The historic house, dating to 1917, was extensively repaired and upgraded in 2021 to create a first floor conference space equipped for remote meetings, a second floor meeting room that adjoins a dining room/kitchen area; and seven sleeping rooms that can accommodate up to 40 guests overnight.
Friends Place also offers experiential programs in civic engagement designed for young people to learn and engage in solutions to our country’s structural problems—like racism, militarism, inequity, and injustice—that prevent the full realization of our democracy. Friends Place’s programs are based on the ethical and moral grounding of Quakers (Religious Society of Friends) and are open to all groups.
Friends Place on Capitol Hill is an independent 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit subsidiary of the FCNL Education Fund and affiliated with Friends Committee on National Legislation. These are Quaker nonprofit and nonpartisan organizations working together to advance peace, justice, and environmental stewardship.
Availability
As a Quaker learning center and guesthouse, Friends Place is available for daytime and overnight rentals, which can include a programming component for groups renting the space.
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Financials and Reports
Friends Place on Capitol Hill is an independent 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit. It was formerly known as William Penn House. Friends Place is affiliated with the FCNL Education Fund and the Friends Committee on National Legislation, both nonpartisan nonprofit Quaker organizations.
Employer Identification Number: 52‐0846718
For more information on financials, please contact: Thomas Swindell, 800-630-1330 x 2535.
Indigenous Land Acknowledgement
As Friends Place bears witness and promotes civic engagement, it also acknowledges the Nacotchtank tribe on whose ancestral land the Friends Place on Capitol Hill building stands. They are also known as the Anacostans, the Indigenous people who lived along the banks of the Anacostia River, including in several villages in what is now known as Capitol Hill and Washington, D.C. By the 1700s, the Nacotchtank tribe had merged with other tribes like the Pamunkey and the Piscataway, both of which still exist today.