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

Christ Church
Newton, Sussex County

This Anglican congregation was organized in 1769 and a charter was granted by George III in 1774, when Sussex was still part of Hunterdon County. The church was organized and subsidized by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) until the Revolutionary War, when most of the Anglican clergy (who had to support the British) closed their churches and fled the state. Initial services were held in the old courthouse until the first church was built in 1823.
     This building, the second on the site, was begun in 1868 and dedicated a little over a year later, on the hundredth anniversary of the church. It is built of blue limestone and cost about $30,000. The fancy ironwork hinges and the coursed, rusticated stone are characteristic of Episcopal churches, and the building follows standard Episcopal precepts—an east-oriented altar, articulated chancel and aisles, south entrance, as well as the Gothic windows and substantial buttresses. The interior is magnificent. There was once a very tall steeple which fell victim to lightning in 1929.

See Merrit Ierley, An Inheritance of the faithful: A 225th Anniversary History of Christ Episcopal Church. Newton: Christ Episcopal Church, 1993.