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
Hightstown, Mercer County

The congregation is a very early one, organized in 1745 as a daughter congregation of the Baptist church in Middletown, the oldest Baptist congregation in the state. Although the tower and steeple are the features that immediately catch the eye, a closer look reveals a basic Greek Revival façade, with its shallow-pitched roof line and the corner pilasters. The round-arch windows are borrowed from the Romanesque, so we have a very eclectic style—what we'd probably call vernacular. The church was built in 1857, just as the popularity for Greek Revival had largely faded in favor of the Gothic. The belfry-clock-steeple are not original, but replace ones damaged by lightning some years ago.

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Copyright (c) 2005 Frank L. Greenagel