The authoritative source on
  early churches of New Jersey

   

About this site
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.

How to use this site
Respond to readers' queries
Consult the database
Annotate the database
Upload a photo
Suggest a church for inclusion
Glossary
List of churches, by county
Photographic notes
Links to related sites
Bulletin Board

   About the book

This website got its start when I realized that my book on the New Jersey Churchscape would contain only a portion of the images and information I had pulled together over the last several years. Now it's appropriate to return the favor and mention the book, including some of the reviews that have been published.
     The book, published by Rutgers University Press, available in hardcover, contains 240 pages, 225 black-and-white illustrations (some of which can be seen on this site), index, and bibliography. There is an introductory essay, outlining the historical and cultural factors that shaped the churchscape, including construction types, architectural styles and why the churches are located where they are. The body of the book is organized into three sections, each dealing with a cluster of counties that were settled relatively early; the Hudson River section covers Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris and Union counties; the Raritan Valley region includes Middlesex, Monmouth, Hunterdon, parts of Mercer, Somerset, and Warren counties; and the Delaware River section includes Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Gloucester, parts of Mercer, and Salem counties. Within each section, the churches are arranged chronologically, so the reader can see the development of regional and national architectural styles, as well as trace the effect of the rising affluence in the region.
      My intent was to make it the definitive work on the topic. The book sells for $35 and is available in most bookstores in the state (look in the Regional Interest area rather than in architecture or photography). You can also order it directly from Rutgers University Press or online from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Churches featured in the book:
Trinity Episcopal church, Newark • First Presbyterian church, Rahway • Connecticut Farms Presbyterian church, Union • First Presbyterian church, Elizabeth • Plainfield Friends, Plainfield • Old First church, Newark • First Reformed church, Hackensack • Springfield Presbyterian church • English Neighborhood Reformed church, Ridgefield • Bloomfield Presbyterian church • Dutch Reformed Church of Schraalenburgh, Bergenfield • Old Paramus Reformed church, Ridgewood • Old North Reformed church, Dumont • Second Presbyterian church, Elizabeth • Mt. Freedom Presbyterian church, Morris county • Emmanuel Methodist Episcopal church, Springfield • First Presbyterian church of New Providence • Old Bergen church, Jersey City • St. Paul’s Episcopal church, Rahway • Second Reformed Dutch church, Newark • St. Patrick’s Pro Cathedral, Newark • St. Mark’s Episcopal church, West Orange • House of Prayer, Newark • First Presbyterian church of Chester • High Street Presbyterian church, Newark • South Park Presbyterian church, Newark • Church of the Madonna, Fort Lee • St. Mary’s Roman Catholic church, Newark • North Reformed church, Newark • St. John’s Episcopal church, Elizabeth • Trinity church, Woodbridge • St. Peter’s Roman Catholic church, Newark • Layfayette Reformed Society, Jersey City • First Reformed Dutch Church of Bergen Neck, Bayonne • First Baptist church, Elizabeth • Clinton Avenue Reformed church, Newark • St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic church, Jersey City • Trinity Episcopal church, Elizabeth • Church of the Holy Innocents, Hoboken • Church of the Holy Assumption, Morristown • Central Presbyterian church, Orange • First Reformed Church of Orange • Our Lady of Grace Roman Catholic church, Hoboken • First Presbyterian Church of Caldwell • St. Mary’s Roman catholic church, Plainfield • East Baptist church, Elizabeth • Adas Emuno synagogue, Hoboken • Prince Street Synagogue, Newark • North Baptist church, Jersey City • St. Peter’s Episcopal church, Morristown • Holy Cross Roman Catholic church, Harrison • Peddie Memorial Baptist church, Newark • Seventh Day Baptist church, Plainfield • St. Bridget’s Roman Catholic church, Jersey City • First Baptist church, Hoboken • Knox Presbyterian church, Kearney • Church of the Immaculate Conception, Montclair • Cranford Presbyterian church • Church of the Holy Rosary, Elizabeth • St. Columba Catholic church, Newark • First Presbyterian church, Morristown • St. Lucy’s Roman Catholic church, Jersey City • Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Newark

Zion Lutheran church, Oldwick • Old Tennent church, near Freehold • Mt. Bethel Baptist meetinghouse, Warren township • Friends Meetinghouse at Stony Brook, near Princeton • St. Thomas Episcopal church, Alexandria township • Neshanic Dutch Reformed church, Montgomery township • Christ church, Shrewsbury n St. Peter’s church, Freehold • Christ church, New Brunswick • First Dutch Reformed church, New Brunswick • Shrewsbury Friends meetinghouse • Second Presbyterian Church of Amwell, Raritan township • Locktown Baptist church, Delaware township • First Presbyterian church, Shrewsbury • Old School Baptist church, Hopewell • Dutch Reformed church of the Navesink, Marlboro • Hillsborough Dutch Reformed Church at Millstone • Old First church, Middletown • Reformed Church of Blawenberg • Allaire Village church, Allaire Village State Park • Reformed Dutch church, Clover Hill • Christ Church, Middletown • Old Greenwich Presbyterian church, Warren county • St. James Episcopal church, Piscatawaytown • Kingwood Presbyterian church, Kingwood township • Witherspoon Street Presbyterian church, Princeton • First English Presbyterian church, Raritan township • Musconetcong Valley Presbyterian church, near Hampton • First Presbyterian Church of Cranbury • First Presbyterian church, Basking Ridge • First Presbyterian church, Princeton • Reformed Church of Griggstown • Little York Christian church, Alexandria township • South Bound Brook Reformed church, South Bound Brook • Moorite church, Delaware township • St. Peter’s Episcopal church, Spotswood • Pluckemin Presbyterian church • Trinity Church, Matawan • Kingston Presbyterian church • St. Peter’s Episcopal church, Perth Amboy • Presbyterian Church of Lambertville • Reformed Dutch church of Rocky Hill • Berean Baptist Church, Stockton • Quakertown Friends meetinghouse • First Presbyterian church, Clinton • Oldwick Methodist Episcopal church • St. Peter’s Roman Catholic church, New Brunswick • Simpson Methodist Episcopal church, Perth Amboy • Fairmont Methodist Episcopal church, Tewksbury Township • Bethlehem Baptist church, Union township • Trinity church, Princeton • Methodist Episcopal church of Amwell, East Amwell township • Liberty Corner Presbyterian church, Bernards township • Mt. Lebanon Methodist Episcopal church, Lebanon township • First Baptist church, Manasquan • First Methodist Episcopal church, New Brunswick • St. James Chapel (Church of the Presidents), Long Branch • Bethlehem Presbyterian church, Union township • Lower Valley Presbyterian church, Califon • Reformed Church of High Bridge • Lebanon Methodist Episcopal church • Kirkpatrick Chapel, Rutgers University, New Brunswick • Quakertown Methodist Episcopal church • Presbyterian Church of Flemington • St. Paul’s African Methodist Episcopal church, South Bound Brook • First Baptist church of Freehold • Central Baptist church, Atlantic Highlands • Bound Brook Presbyterian church • Thornley Chapel, Ocean Grove • First Brethren church, Sergeantsville • Mt. Airy Presbyterian church, near Lambertville • Lamington Presbyterian church • Glen Gardner Methodist Episcopal church • Holland Presbyterian church • Milford Methodist Episcopal church

St. Mary’s Episcopal church, Burlington • Woodbury Friends meetinghouse • Upper Springfield Friends meetinghouse, Springfield township • Trenton Friends meetinghouse • Bordentown Friends meetinghouse • St. Michael’s Episcopal church, Trenton • Hancock’s Bridge Friends meetinghouse • Old Pilesgrove Presbyterian church, Daretown • Emanuel Lutheran church at Friesburg, Alloway township • Evesham Friends meetinghouse, Mt. Laurel township • Greenwich Orthodox Friends meetinghouse • Deerfield Presbyterian church • Rancocas Friends meetinghouse • Salem Friends meetinghouse • Chesterfield Preparative meetinghouse, Crosswicks • Mt. Holly Friends meetinghouse • Arney’s Mount Friends meetinghouse, Springfield township • Fairton Old Stone church • Old Swedes church, Swedesboro • Woodstown Friends meetinghouse • Burlington Friends meetinghouse • Moravian church, near Swedesboro • Old Broad Street Presbyterian church, Bridgeton • Adams Methodist Episcopal church, near Swedesboro • First Cohansey Baptist Church of Roadstown • Mullica Hill Friends meetinghouse • First Baptist church, Woodstown • Newton Friends meetinghouse, Camden • St. John’s Episcopal church, Salem • First Presbyterian church, Trenton • Old Pittsgrove Baptist church, Pittsgrove township • St. Andrews Episcopal church, Mt. Holly • St. Peter’s Episcopal church, Clarksboro • Chapel of the Holy Innocents, St. Mary’s Hall, Burlington • St. Paul’s Episcopal church, Trenton • Solomon Wesley Methodist Episcopal church, Blackwood • Church of the Sacred Heart, Trenton • St. Stephen’s Episcopal church, Mullica Hill • St. Mary’s church, Burlington • Bethlehem African Methodist Episcopal church, Burlington • First Presbyterian church, Salem • Broadway Methodist Episcopal church, Salem • First Baptist church, Bordentown • Jacob’s Chapel AME, near Wrightstown • St. Andrew’s Episcopal church, Bridgeton • Quinton Methodist church • Mt. Moriah African Methodist Episcopal church, Mt. Holly • Church of the Immaculate Conception, Camden • First Presbyterian church, Bordentown • Deerfield Methodist Episcopal church • Juliustown Methodist Episcopal church • Sacred Heart Roman Catholic church, Mt. Holly • Prospect Avenue Presbyterian church, Trenton • Providence Presbyterian church, near Florence • Bridgeboro Methodist Episcopal church • Avas Achim synagogue, Norma • Or Yisrael synagogue, Rosenhayn • First Methodist church, Trenton • St. Stanislaus Catholic church, Trenton • Mt. Holly Baptist church

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For those who have not (yet) purchased my book on The New Jersey Churchscape, a review recently received from Professor John Fea, Ph,D, Assistant Professor of American History, Messiah College, Grantham, PA., may be of interest. Many thanks to Professor Fea.

As a graduate student writing a dissertation on the early religious history of colonial New Jersey I could have used Frank Greenagel’s The New Jersey Churchscape. This handsome collection of church photographs surpasses the work of Ellis Derry as the definitive catalog of eighteenth and nineteenth century churches in the Garden State. Each photograph includes the date of construction, the founding date of the given congregation and, in some cases, the date of renovations and additions to the original structures. Greenagel estimates that there are approximately 1100 eighteenth- and nineteenth-century church buildings currently standing in New Jersey, making the task of choosing the 225 churches that appear in his book a difficult one. In the end, he chose to publish photographs of all the existing eighteenth-century structures in the state and a representative selection of nineteenth-century churches based on architectural style and religious diversity.

     But Greenagel is not content on merely producing a coffee-table book of photographs of New Jersey churches. His introductory essay, entitled “The Churchscape: Diversity, Location, Construction, and Design,” challenges us to think about the role that churches have played in the social, economic, cultural, and religious history of New Jersey. Greenagel is aware that these churches were constructed and reconstructed in a given time and place. Such historical and architectural context—which he describes here as a “Churchscape”—provides us with a fuller understanding of a building’s history. He grounds this essay in the rich and diverse history of early New Jersey, reminding us that the colony, and later the state, was never a culturally homogeneous place. Such heterogeneity was exemplified in these material manifestations of religious and social life. From the simplicity of the seventeenth-century Quaker meetinghouse to the Gothic designs of post-Civil War mainline Protestant and Catholic buildings, religious beliefs, steeped in the social and cultural milieu of a given era, are essential for interpreting these sacred spaces. Greenagel is thus very sensitive to region and religious pluralism.

     The church photographs are divided into three New Jersey regions—the Hudson River, the Delaware Valley, and the Raritan Valley. They also represent a host of different religious groups ranging from Catholicism and Judaism (synagogues) to smaller Protestant denominations such as the Seventh Day Baptists and the Moravians.
At one level, Greenagel’s book is a wonderful reference tool. I am sure that I will consult it regularly in my continued research on colonial life and religion in early New Jersey. At a deeper level, Greenagel’s notion of a “Churchscape” offers a worthwhile way to think about material religion in early New Jersey or, for that matter, anywhere else. Scholars are beginning to use church buildings and material culture generally as invaluable sources for “doing” American religious history. While the term “Churchscape” is, as far as I can tell, unique to Greenagel, the idea of exploring the religious world and community that surrounds these buildings and their construction is certainly a worthwhile endeavor. For example, did the choice of building materials reflect the social standing of a given denomination or congregation? Friends’s meetinghouses were supposed to model Quaker simplicity and frugality, but they were also made of brick, the most expensive building material available in the eighteenth century. What do building renovations—such as the construction of a new pulpit, the erection of steeple, or the installation of more comfortable pews--tell us about the history of a given church, denomination, and its people? Many churches, such as the Methodists and Baptists, used their buildings to reflect an ecclesiastical move away from the rough and tumble religiosity of their founding and toward a more refined place on the mid-nineteenth-century religious landscape. Furthermore, how did the challenges of war, especially the American War for Independence, influence religious communities and their buildings? The movement of British and colonial troops damaged several of the churches included in this collection. Or how did local revivals and other aspects of the everyday religious life affect the erection of church buildings? My research shows that the construction of the “Old Stone Church” by Fairfield (Cumberland County) Presbyterians in 1781 may have contributed to a doubling of the church membership. I have also found that the construction of the “Old Swedes Church” in Swedesboro was closely linked to the loss of Swedish ethnic identity on the Delaware and the Swedes’s late eighteenth-century ecclesiastical transition from Lutheranism to Episcopalianism.

     Greenagel does not have the space to develop his thoughts along these lines or treat individual cases, but his book does make an attempt to push us in such interpretive directions. Those who are willing to take up his challenge may be surprised to find that the early records needed to construct these New Jersey “Churchscapes” are often extant. Through some careful detective work the stories of these buildings and their place in the life of a given religious community can be uncovered and told, providing us with a richer history of New Jersey’s past. For those interested in such a pursuit, Greenagel’s book, and his accompanying web site (www.njchurchscape.com) will be the starting point for many years to come.

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Copyright (c) 2002 Frank L. Greenagel