Monday, 27 April 2009
Old Stone Church
There is a beautifully proportioned church at the corner of Oak Summit Road and Route 519 in Kingwood, New Jersey.
The modest stone building is attractive in its simplicity, graceful both within and from the outside.
The Old Stone Meeting House was established in 1754 when the trustees of the Presbyterian Congregation of Kingwood, James Barcalow, Charles Hoff and Henry Cock, were granted 1 1/4 acres by Lawrence Hoff, owner of an adjoining plantation. The original church was built in the graveyard across Oak Summit Road. Established at about the same time as the Presbyterian Church, Oak Summit Cemetery contains the graves of many early pioneers and prominent citizens of Kingwood Township, including five veterans of the American Revolution and the remains of at least four Civil War Veterans. The last known burial was in 1914.
Colonel Thomas L. Lowrey, whose remains were laid to rest at the Oak Summit Cemetery in 1809, served as a supply officer and was named as a Colonel in the New Jersey Militia during the Revolution. He had been elected to the first provincial Congress for New Jersey in 1775, and served in the New Jersey Assembly in 1791 and 1792.
Though the condition of the church was deteriorating in the years during the Revolution, for a period of 10 days in December of 1778, the Continental Army camped at the church and on surrounding plantations while transporting British and Hessian prisoners to Virginia. The deterioration continued after the new country was established, and the present structure was built in 1837, using some of the stones from the old church.
The Old Stone Church was vacant for many years in the 20th century, but now serves as the home of The First Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Township of Kingwood. The building remains much as it was when it was built 160 years ago, even to the original side windows. The church regularly hosts a schedule of chamber music, and I can attest that the acoustics are excellent.
Moss pink, Phlox subulata, flowers in the close cut grass of the churchyard,
bees foraging in the quiet sunshine of a late April afternoon where once
passions ran high in troubled times of war, turbulence in people's lives.
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