St. Mark's Episcopal Church (West Orange, New Jersey)

St. Mark's Episcopal Church
The former St. Mark's Episcopal Church as seen from Main Street in October 2013.
Location 13 Main Street, West Orange, New Jersey
Coordinates 40°46′37″N 74°14′20″W / 40.77694°N 74.23889°WCoordinates: 40°46′37″N 74°14′20″W / 40.77694°N 74.23889°W
Area 2.5 acres (1.0 ha)
Built 1828
Architect Upjohn, Richard M.
Architectural style Gothic Revival
Governing body Private
NRHP Reference # 77000868[1]
NJRHP # [2]
Added to NRHP September 22, 1977

St. Mark's Episcopal Church is a historic church located at 13 Main Street at Valley Road in West Orange, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. It currently houses the Primera Iglesia Evangelica Metodista Libra de los Oranges, a Methodist congregation.

The church has been called an "outstanding example of Gothic Revival architecture" by Preservation New Jersey, and was listed as one of the ten most endangered historic sites in New Jersey in 1996.[3] It has been said that the building "represents the beginning and the end of the ecclesiological style in the United States."[4] The Ecclesiological style movement in church architecture advocated Gothic revival architecture using theological arguments.

History

The original Episcopal congregation was founded in 1828 as an offshoot of Trinity Parish in Newark. Within a few decades it had become the largest and wealthiest Episcopal congregation in and around "The Oranges" of New Jersey.[5]

Work on the brownstone main church began in 1828. An addition completed in 1860–1861, including the steeple, is attributed to noted architect Richard Upjohn.[3]

St. Mark's ran the first elementary school in West Orange beginning in 1865. This school building was destroyed by fire in 1926. It also ran the first high school in West Orange, which graduated a class of nine students in 1893. A new high school building was opened in 1898, which was destroyed by fire on February 27, 1913.[6]

The parish prospered until the 1960s, when declining attendance led to mounting financial hardships.[7] The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, but the church and its adjacent cemetery fell into disrepair. In 2004, the Episcopal Diocese of Newark leased it to Lamb of God Fellowship, a Renewal congregation, for what was intended to be a long-term stay, but the Fellowship left in 2009 due to the high cost of maintaining the property.[7] As of 2010 the Diocese was attempting to sell the property.[8] The cross atop the structure was shaken loose in the 2011 earthquake and fell to the ground.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.
  2. ↑ "New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places - Essex County". New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection - Historic Preservation Office. April 1, 2010. p. 5. Retrieved August 21, 2010.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "St. Mark's Episcopal Church, West Orange, Essex County". Ten Most Endangered Historic Sites in New Jersey Archive. Preservation New Jersey. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
  4. ↑ Greenagel, Frank L. (2001). The New Jersey Churchscape: Encountering Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Churches. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-2990-5.
  5. ↑ "An Orange Church Divided", New York Times, September 28, 1883
  6. ↑ Fagan, Joseph (2009). West Orange. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 81–85. ISBN 978-0-7385-6357-2.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Two W.O. men restore life to forgotten St. Mark's cemetery", West Orange Navigator, August 10, 2011
  8. ↑ "Recession causes houses of faith to flood N.J. realty market", The Star-Ledger, June 6, 2010
  9. ↑ "Earthquake rattles Northeast, shakes ground in West Orange", West Orange Navigator, August 24, 2011