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

Elberon Memorial Chapel
Elberon (Long Branch), Monmouth County

It was after dark when I photographed this fascinating church about eight years ago, which is why there is very little in the shadows. It was built in 1886 as a memorial to New York merchant Moses Taylor, and paid for by his wife. When it was dedicated, a special train brought honored guests from New York. The Princeton Theological Seminary had some involvement with supplying a minister, and I suspect it was opened only during summer months in the years immediately after its construction. The tower is Norman, and the twin transepts also seem to me to be drawn from the idiom of mid-nineteenth century Normandy/Brittany, which was a fashionable resort area at that time.
     Some local historians claim it was designed by Charles McKim of the very important New York firm, McKim, Mead and White, but others dispute that. I was with the skeptics until a recent book documents McKim many connections with the Taylor family, stretching over a period of years. Moses gave McKim his first important commission, and he later designed at least three houses for the McKim sons. To me it is unthinkable that the family would have turned to another architect for this work. It is a masterful work.
     McKim drew on Norman sources for many of his wooden houses during this period, and he frequently did work for friends "off the books," which is why it may not be documented in his oeuvre.

 

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Copyright (c) 2010 Frank L. Greenagel