First Methodist Episcopal Church

The Methodist Society was formed in Blairstown in 1811, and in 1838 John I. Blair donated the land where the First Methodist Episcopal Church stood. The first church, built that year at a total cost of $1,638 and dedicated about November 1, was a plain rough-cast stone structure with Gothic windows, two front doors opening into the audience room, and neither spire nor belfry. By 1873 that building had become dilapidated and the congregation had grown very small, so it was replaced after the cornerstone of a new church was laid in August 1873. When completed, the new building measured 40 by 60 feet and cost $7,400, and it was dedicated in January 1875 by Reverends Dun, Buttz, and Mayham, the pastor. Hon. John I. Blair presented the bell, the community purchased and installed the steeple clock, and Mrs. Sophia S. Vass presented the Bible and hymnal for the pulpit. On Sunday night, May 22, 1955, flames were seen pouring from the steeple as a fire swept through the church. Fire Chief Babbitt and the Blairstown Hose Company called three outside fire companies, saving the adjacent parsonage and the Branigan home, but the church was a total loss, along with the town clock and bell that had rung throughout the Paulinskill Valley for eighty years. After the fire, the Methodist congregation relocated and built the church that now stands on Stillwater Road, and the original concrete steps are the only remaining evidence of the church that once stood on the hill.

Blairstown, New Jersey · United States