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 Episcopal Church
Bradley Beach, Monmouth County

Bradley Beach is named for an entrepreneurial fellow who was instrumental in building Asbury Park into a major Methodist resort. The town was originally called Ocean Park, but the name was changed in the 1890s. Several of the shore communities from Atlantic Highlands to Island Heights in Ocean County were established by Methodist associations looking for healthy but affordable accommodations for their members. The congre-gation was officially organized in 1887 and met in members’ homes until they bought land and moved a discarded Dutch Reformed church in Asbury Park to their property. Twelve years later they started to build the
present church.
     This is a large late-Victorian church with projections and recessions and towers and gables enough for several buildings. The fenestration is imaginative and varied. There is room to accommodate several meetings as well as a Sunday School and the other activities that were expected of late-century Protestant churches. It is an exceptional example of the period architecture and one hopes the congregation will be able to maintain it appropriately.

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Copyright (c) 2005 Frank L. Greenagel