By Helen Kull
With the opening of the 1867 Sanctuary at Ewing arts venue scheduled for this month, perhaps now is a good time to briefly consider the 300-plus year history of the Presbyterian congregation’s buildings located “at the bend in the Scotch Road,” where the 1867 Sanctuary now sits.
As is so often the case, the story is one of the changing needs of the people.
The story actually begins at a site now occupied by the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital. At the start of the 18th century, the handful of local early European immigrants of the Anglican (Episcopalian) and Presbyterian persuasions, devout in their beliefs, needed a place to worship in their new homeland, and they attempted to share a site for worship and burial purposes.
Their structure is long gone, but remnants of the graves still exist today on the grounds of the psychiatric hospital, behind Palmer Lane.
However, the ecumenical marriage lasted only a few years before theological disagreements evidently prompted the two groups to go their separate ways.
The Anglicans became the St. Michael’s congregation, and soon moved their home to what is now Trenton, while the Presbyterians sought another location nearby for their home.
Those Presbyterians needed and selected a spot not far away, on high ground. The high ground was chosen for its suitability for burial ground, a critical consideration in selecting a location for worship, since at that time, cemeteries were almost always associated with a church.
A plot of land just over an acre in size was purchased in March of 1709 for 5 shillings from Alexander Lockhart by 20 men, each of them local landowners.
Although the deed did not specify that the land would be used for burial or worship purposes, the purchase of such a small piece of land by so many implies a communal purpose for the land, and anecdotally it was used almost immediately as burial ground.
That ground is the ground at the bend in Scotch Road, at the top of the Carlton Avenue hill.
It is said that for the first few years, people gathered under two large oak trees on the site to worship, until a log cabin was erected in 1712 to protect the worshippers from the elements.
Most of the locals were Scots, Scots-Irish, or English, which provided a reference for the local road name. The congregation was one of three or four locally that shared the scarce services of itinerant pastors, and was known as the “Hopewell Church,” since at that early time, the site was located in (a much larger) Hopewell Township.
In 1725 or so, a wood frame structure replaced the log cabin meeting house. Although there are no existing specifications for either structure, the wood frame structure was likely somewhat larger, and more suited to gatherings of worshipers.
By this time, this same location (in what we know as Ewing) was no longer “Hopewell,” but was (as of 1719) called Trenton Township.
Soon, a second meeting house would be built “downtown” in the village of Trent’s Town, to accommodate the worshipers who had previously traveled out from the village along the Scotch Road to worship at the “Hopewell”/Trenton Township location.
Those village worshipers comprised the “town” house, and those worshiping at the site in the more rural Township comprised the “country” or “old” house.
However, they remained one incorporated congregation with two meeting locations for nearly 75 years. During that time they continued to share clergy with each other, and with other local congregations.
Eventually the two congregations split, the “town” congregation becoming in 1787 the “Presbyterian Church of Trenton,” and the “country” house becoming the “First Presbyterian Church of Trenton Township” congregation.
There was much growth in the region during the 18th century, and by the 1790s, after the end of our Revolution (often referred to in England as the Presbyterian War!), the wood frame structure was no longer sufficient.
A larger, more appropriately outfitted worship home was needed. Plans were made for a new brick building on the site, despite the fact that the Ewing congregation was continuing to share the services of clergy with other congregations.
The building, completed in 1797, took two years to construct, and was the home of the congregation for 70 years.
Next Month: A Fourth Building is Erected in 1867.
Do you have a Ewing story to share? Contact Helen at ewingthenandnow@gmail.com
