"Let us then try what Love will do." --William Penn
Seek Peace and Pursue It

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True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

-- William Penn

The History of William Penn House

Established in 1966

When in September 1966 the William Penn House program was launched, its founders could draw on the experiences of Quaker agencies already at work on Capitol Hill. The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) had already started annual Quaker Leadership Seminars. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), in cooperation with Davis House, sponsored each year several youth seminars.

Earlham College offered Washington Semester programs. Friends Meeting of Washington had established a Seminar Committee (which later became the William Penn House Committee). Friends from various congressional districts came to FCNL "Wednesdays in Washington" briefings. But a base for programming and hospitality was needed.
Bob and Sally Cory were finishing a 5-year assignment at the Quaker U.N. Office. They had had AFSC experience in administering work camps and foreign student seminars and in providing hospitality and orientation for refugees from Europe. They were free to take advantage of the discovery and purchase of 515 East Capitol Street, an ideal location for seminar and hospitality programs. (In 1977, the Corys moved to a small home of their own just a block away). Sally and Bob Cory
Bob and Sally Cory

The founders could not have foreseen the years of dramatic major peace and justice demonstrations - a "baptism" for William Penn House! The moratorium and mobilization protests against U.S. warfare in Indochina was followed in 1968 by the Poor Peoples Campaign. Later came the Native American "Trail of Broken Treaties" and "Peoples Revolutionary Constitutional Convention."

Besides being a center for demonstration strategy and passive resistance training, William Penn House quickly became a place where congressional staff members and citizen action leaders could meet for informal luncheon discussions with Quakers and persons known to Quakers who could supply first-hand information on policy issues, especially on Vietnam and on the United Nations.

The greatest asset of the William Penn House has been the willingness of "seminar faculty" persons in governmental and civic organizations to give generously of their time and wisdom for informal discussion with students (young and old). In any given year several hundred "resource" leaders have made possible exciting exploration of issues of peace and social justice. Also of major importance has been the adventuresome spirit of seminar participants and sojourners who have expressed their convictions in visits to the offices of their Senators and Congressmen.