The First Baptist Church, the oldest religious institution in South Plainfield, was founded by local Baptists in 1792 as the Samptown Baptist Church. The first church building was constructed in the same year outside the colonial hamlet of Samptown in what is now the Hillside Cemetery of Samptown on present day New Market Avenue. A larger church was built on that site n 1832. When that structure was destroyed by fire in 1879, the present church was constructed the next year in what was then the village of New Brooklyn, which was becoming the economic and social center of the community. Now changed from its original Gothic Stick design, it is the oldest church building in South Plainfield. The adjacent parsonage was constructed in 1911. Many families prominent in the history of the area were members of the congregation. The name of the Church was changed to the New Brooklyn Baptist Church (1883), South Plainfield Baptist Church (1892), and the First Baptist Church of South Plainfield (1966).
This historic marker is a gift to the people of South Plainfield from the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders, 2010.
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