HILLSDALE, N.J.—Hillsdale United Methodist Church, at Magnolia and Hillsdale avenues, has been at its present location for the past 70 years, opening in April 1955. However, the Methodist denomination has a much longer history in town.
As early as 1873, a group of Methodists were meeting on the second floor of the newly built Hillsdale railroad station. The church was officially organized May 3, 1874, predating the formation of Hillsdale itself by 24 years. The community was then still a rural village within Washington Township. The population was scant, and the people were mostly farmers.
From 1876 to 1877, the Methodist congregation built Hillsdale’s first church. The land, a plot on the southwest corner of Hillsdale and Magnolia avenues, was donated by David Patterson, a wealthy Hillsdale landowner who lived in a mansion off Hillsdale Avenue near the present St. John’s Academy (Patterson Street is named for him).
In addition to being a land speculator, Patterson was the president of the Hackensack & New York Extension Railroad Company. Backed by a group of investors, he was largely responsible for bringing the railroad to the Pascack Valley in 1869. And beyond arranging the sale of hundreds of parcels in the vicinity of the train station, Patterson is said to have donated the land for Veterans Memorial Park, the town’s central common (1871).
The beautiful frame church was built in the Victorian style of the era and dedicated in June of 1877. Wooden pews that seated four were detached from the floor, allowing them to be rearranged for events inside the church. The first light came from kerosene lamps mounted on the wall with brackets. Electric light replaced these in 1903.
The earliest parking lot came in the form of a horse shed, and this was accessed from a carriage drive extending from Hillsdale Avenue. By way of facilities, there was a wooden privy behind the church.
The original bell, purchased in 1889 at a cost of $120 (about $4,000 in today’s money), rang out for the first time on Sept. 17 of that year. It could be heard a mile away. That bell can be seen outside the present church, where it is permanently displayed.
Despite a 1911 addition that doubled the size of the building, growth did not stop and it became clear that more space was needed. It was not financially prudent to renovate the existing building, so a new church was built across the street on the opposite side of Magnolia Avenue in the mid-1950s.
For a time, the old church was used for Sunday school classes and other church functions, as well as scout meetings. Part of it was rented out to the school district for use as classrooms.
However, by around 1960 a decision was made to sell the building. Right before the sale was completed, an arsonist started a fire that destroyed it. The site now serves as a parking lot for the Hillsdale UMC across the street.
Two weeks after the fire, in March of 1961, the cornerstone from the 1911 church addition was opened and a time capsule revealed. After 50 years, water had gotten to the items inside. A packet of papers and a book of psalms had turned to pulp, but a pile of pennies—110 of them, placed in the capsule by the children of the church a half-century earlier—survived.
Coin enthusiasts might be interested to know that the collection contained about 50 Indian heads, 50 early Lincoln heads, one or two of which were minted in the 1860s, and some dated to about 1900.
There was also a Canadian coin as well as a 3-cent piece.