Peter Quire

Peter Quire (June 15, 1806–May 5, 1899) was an American abolitionist, community leader, cobbler, and church founder. He was a member of the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a child; and later with his wife Harriet, he was a founder of St. John the Evangelist Church (now known as the Zabriskie Memorial Church of Saint John the Evangelist) in Newport, Rhode Island.

Biography Peter Quire was born on June 15, 1806, in Pennsylvania, U.S.. Months later they built St. John’s Church (the building is now St. Johns’ Guild Hall) at 61 Poplar Street in the Point neighborhood, and featured a racially diverse congregation. By 1885, the church was accepted into the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island, and continued to be mostly self-funded.

In the 1890s, the church was struggling financially. In 1893, Sarah Titus Zabriskie donated money to the church in the memory of her mother inspiring the new name Zabriskie Memorial Church.