Stockholm Methodist Episcopal Church
Stockholm, Sussex County
founded 1800, built 1826
The
simple
meetinghouse in Stockholm was erected in 1826 by one of the earliest
Methodist congregations in the state, formed in 1800. Methodist circuit
preachers did particularly well in rural areas, and many of their early
congregations can be found in Sussex, Morris, Warren, and Hunterdon (as
well as in south Jersey). Only after the Civil War did they do well in
the more urban areas of the state.
The design of the church could not be any plainer—even
the small belfry is almost certainly a later addition. This is a typical early nineteenth-century braced-frame meetinghouse-style building—really not much different in form from a barn. The congregation took Asbury's dicta—to build as simply as possible—very strictly. There are shutters on the front but
not on the side. And there is a substantial burial ground to the rear.
National Register.