The
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early churches of New Jersey
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Methodist Episcopal Church of Flanders
Flanders, Mt. Olive Township, Morris County
The Flanders Circuit is a phrase which recurs in the annuals of the Methodist church in the northwestern part of the state—which is not surprising as Methodist preachers were visiting the area soon after the close of the Revolutionary War. Francis Asbury preached to nearly a thousand people in the woods near here in 1787.
The congregation may have had a chapel by 1786, but the first deed is dated 1789. That building was used until this one was erected in 1853, and according to the Methodist’s official history, it was still standing in 1960.
This is a traditional church--a simple meetinghouse with a square tower, belfry and steeple. Note, however, the transition from the square tower to the octagon shaped steeple—a broach introduced in the Gothic Revival churches of the late 1840s, which means the carpenter-builder was aware of currents in religious architecture.
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Copyright (c) 2004 Frank L. Greenagel
