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 Baptist Church
Avon-by-the-Sea, Monmouth County

Avon-by-the-Sea is a resort community of less than a half square mile, with wide streets leading to the sea. It was cut out of Neptune Township in 1900 when it acquired its present name; it was originally called Key East when its streets were laid out in 1879. The town was patterned after Ocean Grove, and Baptist and Episcopal organizations were active here. Provision was apparently made for several churches, as there is one every other block.
This small Gothic-style church is now stuccoed, but the construction is brick. The tower is the dominant feature, but the repeated Gothic arch over the windows, the entrance and the openings in the belfry give it a distinctive character. Curiously, the original church had a large round window where the choir window is now, and the other windows and door surrounds were
also round. That renovation, completed in the 1940s I believe, also
removed the pyramid roof of the tower and changed the openings in the belfry. The modest buttresses are not likely needed for structural reasons; they are a convention of Gothic style. The church was renamed the Taylor Memorial Baptist Church in 1927 in honor of a former minister.

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Copyright (c) 2005 Frank L. Greenagel