The authoritative source on
  early churches of New Jersey

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We've created a database and photographic inventory on more than half the 18th & 19th century churches in the state and add to it each month. We welcome and solicit all contributions and suggestions from our visitors.

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   Photographic Inventory

First Methodist Church
Freehold, Monmouth County

Main Street in Freehold boasts quite an alignment of old churches— Reformed, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist. All were built about the middle of the nineteenth century, and in most cases we know the name of the architect, which is rather unusual.
      The Methodist church held meetings as early as 1780, but the congregation was not formally organized until 1831. It was named the Wesley Chapel until 1875 when the name was changed. The congregation met in local schools and in the courthouse until they built their first church. This building was erected in 1857-58, but the tower was added in 1885. The architect for the church was Charles Graham, and the buiolding was described by contemporaries as "Romanesque, finished on the outside in imitation of brown stone." That hardly seems to fit the present building.

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Copyright (c) 2006 Frank L. Greenagel