Historic Church

The congregation continues to worship in this historic building each Sunday from June to the Sunday before Labor Day.

      This old edifice is the second of four Presbyterian Church buildings erected in Newtown.  The first was built in 1734, and William Tennent, our first minister, preached there one Sunday a month.  The first pastor to be installed in Newtown took office in 1752.
     Erected in 1769, remodeled in 1842, and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in July of 1987, we are assured that the exterior of this stately old church will remain as you see it today.  In December of 1776, because it was one of the largest buildings in town, General Washington commandeered it and used it as a hospital, a jail and a P.O.W. "camp."  After the Battle of Trenton, several hundred Hessians were held here before they began their long march to Philadelphia where they would be exchanged for American soldiers.
     The small building on the south side of the church is the Session House.  One of two such buildings in the County still standing, it was built about 1798, and used as a meeting place for the Session.  Because most of them were farmers and did not get to town except on Sunday, a quiet place was needed to conduct church business.

In back of the church is the cemetery. As you stroll through the cemetery, you may be surprised to find eight British flags.  They mark the graves of men who fought in the French and Indian War.  There are twenty-eight flags flying over the graves of members of this church who followed General Washington in the Revolutionary War.  In the back, just in front of the wall, is the grave of a man who stood for the Union during the Civil War.