Twins
One
of the major activities of the architectural historian, it seems to me,
is tracing influences. Whether it be in the development of an architect
or a particular school, or in the evolution of a building style, we are
interested in what came before and how it influenced what we see in front
of us now. That is true of literary and philosophical schools, of course,
as well as artistic ones. It is hard for a critic in any field not to compare
a current work (novel, building, painting) without reference to an earlier
one.
Sometimes the similarities are hard for
all but the most perceptive to discern, but in other cases, it is easy to
see. Indeed, the latest artist/writer/architect often openly acknowledges
his debt to a specific predecessor. This month we examine a few sets of
churches where the debt is clear, if not necessarily acknowledged.
I
am omitting from consideration the similarities in buildings erected from
a planbook, such as those of Richard Upjohn’s Country Residences,
or Benjamin Price’s late-nineteenth century planbooks, both of which I have
documented previously. Here we will look at buildings that were obviously
copied from a previous church, not ones that are simply 
drawing
from a common architectural idiom. Note that in only a few cases do I have
written evidence of the copying, as there is in the case of the Chesterfield
meetinghouse in Crosswicks (left), where a committee examined other Friends’
buildings and recommended the specific plan of the meetinghouse in Buckingham,
Pennsylvania. The Buckingham plan was a relative new development—designed
as a doubled meetinghouse, not simply two more-or-less identical houses
(one for men and one for women) built adjacent to each other as in Mt. Laurel
and Rancocas. The bilateral symmetry is different in the two design concepts.
The
Old North Reformed congregation
near Bergenfield was organized by 1723, but by 1755 dissension within the
congregation led to a rupture. This was a time of dispute between traditionalists
and those who wanted the ability to ordain ministers in this country (among
other things). The two parts of the Schraalenburgh congregation, as it was
called, decided to build separate churches by 1798. The Old South church
(right) was built in 1799, basically in the Wren-Gibbs tradition exemplified
by the Reformed church in Hackensack. But the church was later modified
with pairs of brackets, Gothic arch windows and porches flanking the projecting
tower. The congregation, now affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, is
on the National Register and the HABS website includes measured drawings
as well as photographs from the 1930s. The northern group of the congregation,
located in Dumont (above, left), erected its building, virtually identical
to the Old South church, in 1801. It, too, was enlarged later, in a somewhat
similar manner. Several Reformed churches in Bergen County are built to
the same plan, but these are the nearest to twins, for an obvious reason.
St.
George's church in Philadelphia claims to be the oldest continuously-used
Methodist church in America. The building was commissioned by a group of
German Calvinists in 1763, but the congregation could not afford to complete
it, and the unfinished building was purchased by the young Methodist congregation
in 1769 at a cost of £650. The original name was Georg Kirche--the reigning
monarch in England and of German descent. St. George is the patron saint
of England, of course, so the name was changed to the somewhat more ecclesiastical
name that reflected the Anglican origins of the Methodist church. There
is some speculation, based on rather scant evidence, that the building was
designed by Robert Smith, a noted carpenter-builder responsible for Independence
Hall in Philadelphia as well as for Christ Church in Shrewsbury and St.
Peter's in Freehold. It was reputedly the first building used by Methodists
to be called a “church” rather than the customary “chapel.” In any case,
the gable-fronted symmetrical building served as a model for more than a
dozen Methodist congregations in the mid-Atlantic.
Methodists
in Vincentown (Burlington County) built their church in the style of St.
George’s in 1853. Brackets were popular and affordable by this time, and
a belfry or steeple of some sort was usually regarded as an essential element
of a self-respecting church. Modest pilasters provide a bit of relief to
the plainer façade of St. Georges, but the lineage is clear.
Five years later, in 1858, Salem’s Broadway Methodist Episcopal congregation erected a somewhat larger church in the same style, prominently located on the main street, almost across from the county courthouse. The pediment is unusually "heavy," with substantial brackets and supported by pilasters with accentuated capitols. The rectangular windows have been replaced by round-arch ones; there is a triple window above the entrance and an oculus in the pediment. It is a key structure in the city's historic Broadway district.
Salem’s Mt. Pisgah African Methodist Episcopal church was organized in 1800 (well prior to the national organization), and this substantial church was begun in 1878 but not completed until 1883-84. Note the strong similarity with the Broadway church, a mile away. It's a two-story, three-bay brick building, about the same size as the church on Broadway. Brackets emphasize the accentuated pediment, as they do for the Vincentown and Broadway churches, and the tall windows are topped by a modest curve. The pilasters seem to be missing here, and the roofline is much shallower on the Salem churches than St. George's, but the three buildings are substantially the same, and pretty clearly based on the Methodist church in Philadelphia.
Greek Revival churches have been rather exhaustively covered here, but one cannot write about twins without noting the dozen-and-a-half churches, mostly Reformed or Presbyterian, erected in the central part of the state between 1840 and 1855 that follow the plan of the First Presbyterian church in Trenton, erected in 1837. One set of twins should suffice. The Cokesbury Methodist church (Tewksbury Township, Hunterdon County) --from the two early Methodist bishops, Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke, who held services in this area in the waning years of the eighteenth century, was erected in 1851. Two Ionic columns set in the recessed entry are flanked by corner pilasters. There is a large (seldom-used) central door and two smaller ones to each side. The cross-gabled belfry follows no known Greek style, but its rectangular lines were thought to be compatible with the Greek Revival.
The
Presbyterian church in Chester (Morris County) was erected in 1852. Except
for the
belfry, the churches appear to be identical, even to the capitols on the
pilasters. This popular Greek Revival style building is virtually identical
to churches in Cokesbury, Griggstown, Harlingen, East Millstone, Raritan,
South Bound Brook, Stewartsville, and others, all erected with a few years
of 1851. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The
design of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel church in Boonton (Morris County)
is a common one, based on that of St. James the Less in Philadelphia, erected
fourteen years earlier. That design made a profound impression on Richard
Upjohn, a leading Gothic Revival architect who designed churches mainly
for Episcopal congregations, but whose designs were widely influential among
other denominations. The basic characteristics of the plan are a symmetrical
gable-front building with a steeply-pitched roof line, lancet windows, a
bellcote, and substantial buttresses projecting from the front of the church.
There is only the barest suggestion of a tower, and where the liturgy dictated
aisles, they could be accommodated within the slope of the roofline. The
main entrance is occasionally placed on the long side, leaving the façade
available for a large window. It is a form that we can see in Presbyterian,
Lutheran, and Episcopal churches as well as Roman Catholic, and one adaptable
to stone, brick and wooden construction. This is the congregation's second
building, erected in 1860. The architect was Jeremiah O’Rourke, who designed
hundreds of other Catholic churches in the country, but in this case, he
borrowed a bit from Upjohn.
St.
Joseph’s Roman Catholic church in Bound Brook (Somerset County) is also
the second church built by its congregation, which was organized about 1863.
The building was erected in 1890 and follows the design of Boonton's Mt.
Carmel Catholic church. The windows are a little wider and the buttresses
at the corners flare a bit more. It is also credited to O’Rourke.
The
Westfield Presbyterian congregation (Union County) was founded in 1730,
and this classic building was erected in 1862. It quickly became a model
for more than a dozen churches in central Jersey. The tower and steeple
are aligned with the center of the nave, preserving the symmetry of the
front elevation. The shallow pitch to the roof is characteristic of the
Greek Revival, and there is a strong Greek pediment, interrupted by the
tower, which is marked by an elongated window with a round, rather than
pointed arch. The central window is mirrored in two side windows of the
same shape flanking the tower, which has a Tuscan arch just below the base
of the belfry section. There are three front entrances, with the principal
entrance being through the tower. None of these elements are unique, but
the particular combination was apparently thought to be so appropriate that
the design will be echoed, almost intact, in fourteen central Jersey churches
as late as 1878. It is on the National Register.
The
early history of the Presbyterian Church in Newton is one of almost continuous
financial troubles; the church was in debt—to builders as well as to its
ministers—for most of its existence since it was organized in 1786. By 1869,
however, the congregation had outgrown an earlier church (it seated only
600!), and erected this exceptionally large building (64’ x 98’) which reputedly
seats 1,000. The manner is a basic Wren-Gibbs design, but with many elements
borrowed from the Romanesque and Italianate idioms. This building is stone,
whereas the Westfield church, like most of those derrived from it, are wooden-frame
buildings. There is a single entrance through the tower, but some have three
entrances, and there is considerable variety in the steeples and belfries.
There is certainly more than one architect involved in the fourteen churches
of this style, but only a few are known by name. Newton's church was designed
by Charles Graham & Son of Trenton and Elizabeth.
The
largewooden-frame Methodist church in Williamstown (Gloucester County) is
at least the third one on the site. It was built in 1860 to replace an 1844
church, which replaced an earlier church. It includes the strong shape of
the Greek Revival pediment with the square tower of the Wren-Gibbs style.
The round-arch windows are typical of the Romanesque, and the cupola, which
replaced a spire in 1888, is from the Georgian tradition. The cluster of
three narrow windows in the tower is another borrowing from the Romanesque.
One might term this style either vernacular or eclectic,
although the latter is a term we usually use with reference to the last
decades of the nineteenth century. It obviously draws on the same basic
plan as the Reformed churches in Bergen County and the Westfield Presbyterian
church.
The Methodist church in Port Republic (Atlantic County), only 25 miles away, erected 10 years later, was patterned after the Williamstown church, a fact confirmed in a church history booklet sent to me by Reverend Howard Cassaday. The plans for this building were loaned to the Port Republic congregation. By the time this large Wren-Gibbs style church was erected in 1870, the Methodist church in New Jersey, which had been the largest for almost half a century, was soon to be eclipsed by the Catholic church. But Methodism would remain the dominant religion in south Jersey for decades to come. The tower rises straight from the ground, but is interrupted by a couple of bands/string courses before getting to the steeple. The triple window of the Williamstown church has been replaced by a double window, and the church lacks the former's ground floor windows. The building is celebrated for its design, although I find it heavy compared to the soaring Presbyterian church in Westfield, for example.
Most of the Methodist churches in south Jersey erected before the Civil
War are very modest meetinghouses, often called preaching stations.
They were wooden-frame buildings, three bays wide, usually symmetrical,
with rectangular windows and a single, often unadorned entrance. There was
occasionally a small belfry, but rarely a steeple. At mid-century, the Methodists
were the largest denomination in the state and in the country, and their
leaders were now urging congregations to build more elaborately—a marked
departure from the earlier admonishings to build simply. In Cape May county
we can find two churches that were erected on the same plan as the earlier
preaching stations, but in a more fashionable manner.
The
Dennisville Methodist church is a wooden-frame meetinghouse in excellent
condition. The congregation was organized in 1869 and the following year
it built this fine traditional church. It is essentially a small frame meetinghouse,
taller than those of a half-century earlier, but with the same footprint.
The open belfry
and tall steeple had become standard elements of most Methodist churches
by this time. The pediment is interrupted and the raking cornice sports
a series of brackets.
The South Dennis Methodist meetinghouse (left)
is also in exceptional condition, a real credit to its congregation. It
was erected in 1870 in a rather stylish manner. Notice the double brackets
under the pediment, the tall slender windows and shutters, the nicely proportioned
belfry, and the little fanlight in the pediment. It's basically a Greek
Revival meetinghouse with a lot of Italianate details. The two churches
have identical brackets under the eaves. In fact, except for the tall steeple,
the interrupted return on the pediment in Dennisville, and the absence of
the shutters, these are twins--strong evidence they were erected by the
same contractor-builder. I expect it was a matter of congregational pride
that one had a steeple and the other a Second Empire belfry--even twins
sometimes dress differently.
One
of the more unusual church designs I have seen is this 1886 Baptist church
in Washington (Warren County). The initial impression might be that the church
has been modified substantially since then, but that is not the case. An old
photo shows that it used to have an open belfry and a different paint job,
as well as what appear to be shingles rather than clapboard siding, but otherwise
the building looks much as it did in 1928 (except for the aluminum siding,
of course). The hipped roof and the front "shed," with its own gable
and entry vestibule is unique in my experience, except for the carbon copy
Yellow Frame Presbyterian church, erected about twenty years later.
Yellow Frame does not appear to be anything more than a crossroads located on the boundary between Sussex and Warren counties today, but it has been the site of a Presbyterian church since 1763. There was a large meetinghouse-style church in 1859 on the south side of the road, where the cemetery now sits, which was taken down in 1906 or so. According to one source, the current church was erected in 1887, but that is doubtful, in my opinion. Sometime between 1904 and 1907 is the likely date when this building was erected. The church is virtually a scaled-up version of the First Baptist church in Washington. I have found nothing in the published record that explains the connections between the two churches.
St 
Lucy's
Roman Catholic church was built in 1895 on the border of Hoboken and Jersey
City, just a block or two from the road leading to the Holland Tunnel. It
was designed by Jeremiah O'Rourke, a Newark architect who was responsible
for at least a dozen other Catholic churches in the state. The tower is
quite similar to that of the Sacred Heart church in Bloomfield (right),
which O'Rourke also designed. It is also characteristic of a number of midwestern
post offices of the 1880s and 1890s; not surprisingly, O'Rourke served for
a time as the Supervising Architect of the U.S., in which position he was
responsible for the construction of several post offices which bear an affinity
with St. Lucy's and the Sacred Heart. Sacred Heart is a large red sandstone
church, situated on the square, which also hosts three other large stone
churches, including the magnificent 1790s Presbyterian church. The tower
is exceptionally tall. Jeremiah O'Rourke, the leading Catholic architect
of the late decades of the nineteenth century in New Jersey, designed both
buildings within a few years of each other. The tower is also similar, although
on a larger scale, to those on Catholic churches in Raritan and Newton.
The building was erected in 1898.
There are several reasons why there are a number of twins in the state—a common set of plans, architect or builder is probably the major reason. Congregations were related, or often had a connection, such as a minister moving from one church to another, and bringing a set of plans along with him. I have often mentioned the meme—a broadly-held ideal of what a proper church should look like because I believe it was also a significant factor. A congregation seeing that ideal in Philadelphia, Buckingham, Hackensack or Westfield might desire to emulate it, and give instructions to its architect or builder to do so. There are at least another dozen pairs in the state I might have used to illustrate the point, but I think these will do for this month.
The feature article for March was adapted from the initial chapter of my latest book--the churches and meetinghouses of Mercer County, titled Asserting Legitimacy, Maintaining Identity: the religious architecture of Mercer County, New Jersey in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The book was published by the Wooden Nail Press.
The 302 page book includes more than 200 photographs, tables and drawings, an outline of architectural styles, a summary of the religious denominations operating in the state during the early centuries, a glossary of architectural terms, an extensive bibliography, and index. The book is available from Amazon.com, and the website, http://woodennailpress.com.