Grace Lutheran Church

Livingston's Grace Lutheran Church was built in the early 1960s, replacing a farmstead that stood on the same land. 

The building consisted of a small chapel with a single story schoolhouse attached to the right side. The Sanctuary was clad in a cedar clapboard painted barn red, which contrasted nicely against the large green lawn. 

In 2011 an article in the Livingston Patch described how a Spanish speaking Lutheran congregation was to began sharing the space with the existing worshippers. 

Unfortunately even with the new worshippers the church couldnt afford the maintenance and upkeep required to stay open. By 2021 the church vacated the building. The property sold quickly for $3.55 million.

The building was vacant for several years before it was eventually declared an "area in need of redevelopment". Town officials were interested in moving the nearby West Essex YMCA out of their aging building and into a new, state of the art facility. There was quite a bit of community pushback, citing increased noise and traffic concerns. Despite that the plans went ahead, and the building was demolished in 2025. 

Brick Presbyterian Church

Source: TFPNJ Historic Postcard Archive

Sometimes a building will be so iconic, it becomes synonymous with a specific neighborhood. Sometimes it's a hospital, or a tall tower, but more often I find it's a church. The first example of this that comes to mind for me is, without a doubt, Brick Church. 

The Presbyterian congregation that founded Brick Church formed in 1832, but it wasn't until 1878 that the iconic red brick structure rose up on the corner of Main Street and Prospect. The new house of worship was designed in a handsome Romanesque style. 

The founding congregation was dwindling by the turn of the century. The building was sold to the Temple of Unified Christians, a small Haitian ministry. 

The large building was more space than the congragation could keep up with. The main sanctuary was slowly falling apart while the Temple used the large choir room in the back. I had been keeping an eye on the building as it continued to deteriorate. Over the years. Every so often I would see a member of the congregation outside the building. One time I asked if I could go inside and take pictures. Unfortunately I was flatly rejected.

The Temple Of Unified Christians eventually left the building in 2020, right around the time Covid was running rampant. I continued to check up on the building, but without an official closure announcement I wasn't totally sure if the building was totally unoccupied yet. Then one day a friend of mine who was in the area let me know there was a door ajar out back. 

The next morning  I was inside documenting the building. The main sanctuary was less impressive than I always imagined, but I was very grateful to finally see what was on the other side of the stained glass.

Then on April 19th of 2023 that same friend sent me a frantic message. " Dude.... did you know they're tearing down brick church??" accompanied by a screenshot that showed the work. I flew down to the site to see it for myself, and sure enough there was a massive hole ripped through the most structurally intact portion of the building.

The demolition was done under the cover of darkness because the owners knew they would never be able to get the proper permits for the work if they went about the demolition the right way. 

Horrified passers-by called the police, who showed up and promptly halted the work. Unfortunately too much damage had been done, and the building was now beyond fixing.

The church sat wide open to the elements for almost a year as the city decided whether or not to allow the owners to finish the job. Eventually they were given the go ahead, and work started up again in March of 2024.

There are so many people to blame here. Whether by ignorance or malice, this historic treasure which was the namesake for the neighborhood is now gone. The demolition was done so quick and sloppily, and with almost no attempts made to salvage the beautiful, priceless interior. Hopefully this loss will serve as a motivation for city officials to never let this happen again. 

Fewsmith Memorial/ Pilgrim Baptist Church

The late 1800s saw the growth of all types of religion in the city. By far, one of the most prominent denominations was the Presbyterian Church. They established their first worship space in the city in the 1660's. Two centuries later the group was building santuaries all over Newark. One example was the Fewsmith Memorial Presbyterian Church. At first the group worshipped inside a small Carpenter Gothic structure that was built along Jay Street in 1886. By 1893 the congregation had grown so much that they decided to build a large beautiful brick sanctuary along Hudson Street. 

The new sanctuary was a beautiful Gothic building, complete with a large bell tower. Despite the beautiful, relatively new building,  Fewsmith merged with the Roseville Presbyterian Church in 1924. Over 150 former Fewsmith members started attending mass at Roseville, which was about 10 blocks west of their original home. A new Fewsmith Memorial Church was also established in neighboring Belleville the same year. Around the same time, a small group that had split off from Bethany Baptist began working out plans for a new congregation. The group would go on to become Pilgrim Baptist Church. After several months of meeting in different members houses, they purchased the Fewsmith building from the Newark Presbytery and moved in on December 14th. 

A few decades passed, and with it came several new leaders. In 1939 Reverend Charles C. Withers resigned, and Elder Wilson of the Bethlehem Baptist church was called in to lead while they determined who would take charge next. Instead, Bethlehem was actually absorbed by the Pilgrim congregation to worship in their Hudson Street building. To memorialize this, a new cornerstone was installed at the base of the bell tower.

Pilgrim was a critical part of the city and region as a whole, which is reflected in some of the hosuing initiatives undertaken by the church. Under the stewardship of Reverend Arthur Washington Jones in 1979 Pilgrim Baptist Village was constructed to help provide low and moderate income housing to the city. The apartments were built on Bergen Ave at 18th St. on land that was once held dozens of abandoned residences. They also helped get single family housing built all throughout the City of Orange. 

The main sanctuary underwent a large renovation project in 1992. Included in the project were new pews, air conditioning and the iconic blue stained glass windows in the main sanctuary. The work was done under the stewardship of Reverend Clarence E. Thomas. 

Pilgrim Baptist continued to do good work in the community decades. Unfortunately over time, as is often the case, the congregation began to dwindle. As the group got smaller and smaller, the bills got bigger. The large brick and wooden structures needed extensive maintenance and repair work. Then in March of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. 

Churches all over the country were forced to close their doors to worship, while the needs of their respective communities skyrocketed. Pilgrim Baptist was no exception. By the time the pandemic was officially declared over, the congregation had essentially disappeared. They hadn't used their Facebook account in years, but reviews and photos indicate that services were still being held in 2020. The following year they updated the copywrite on their website, but that seems to be the last sign of life I can find.

The buildings were listed for sale in December of 2022, ninety eight years after Pilgrim Baptist moved in. It was on the market for less than a year, before selling for nearly one million dollars. Unfortunately the new owners had no intention of keeping the old church buildings around. Demolition began in November of 2023, just a month after the new owners closed on the property. 

I'm guessing they wanted to act swiftly, to ensure nobody tried to get the old buildings listed on the city or national registers of historic places. Work started with the original 1886 chapel on Jay Street. The large equipment made short work of the old rotted timbers. They paused briefly, to ensure they could get everything of value out of the main sanctuary. However, they made sure to put a gigantic hole in the back wall to ensure it would be too late for any last minute preservation attempts. 

Salvaging the interior elements took about a week, after which demolition commenced in full stride. By the end of 2023, the lot was clear.

Pilgrim joins the long list of city churches that have been unceremoniously demolished in the last few decades. I'm not sure which historic building will be targeted next, but I know this won't be the last. 

Drone photo courtesy of my brother.