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 Reformed Church of Long Branch
Long Branch, Monmouth County

Essentially all of what we see today is the result of the 1902 remodeling
(virtually a total rebuilding—the old frame church was turned and stripped to its frame). The original 1849 church was an in antis Greek Revival plan that had been renovated prior to its reconstruction. The building is now square, with a tower rising at the east corner. The roof is cross-gabled and the building shingled. Three circular windows above the round-arch windows disguise the fact the large windows on three sides of the building are actually based on a Palladian form. The open belfry is surmounted by paired brackets supporting the pyramidal roof, and there is a chanticleer
weathervane rather than a cross atop the tower, which apparently was a Reformed (or Dutch) tradition. The main entry is through the tower, although there is a substantial but subordinate entrance on the west side of the façade. All of those elements are characteristic of architectural styles fifty years later, not of the antebellum period when the church was first built.

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Copyright (c) 2009 Frank L. Greenagel