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

Plains Church
Plains, Frankford Township, Sussex County

The first church in what is now Sussex County was probably a log church, built about 1710, by German Lutherans in Frankford Plains. It was replaced by a wood frame church in 1750, and by 1787 the congregation was controlled by Methodists. In 1800 a new church was erected across the street from the original site, and that served until the present building was put up in 1861. Its early date and central location made it the locus of large Methodist gatherings in the nineteenth century.
     The congregation heeded Asbury’s dicta, even in mid-century, to build plain and simple. The church could hardly be less pretentious, as there is little that is purely decorative about it. On the same property there is an old octangular schoolhouse that has been nicely restored.