428 3rd Street

A Baptist church building was on this site from 1866 to 1905, when it was demolished and the congregation moved to a location out of town. In 1859, the then-newly formed Baptist church with 17 original members met in the Stadelman Institute (see Walking Tour #18) until 1864, then began meeting at the courthouse until a year later when the Board of Chosen Freeholders resolved to evict them. The church then met in the park for a month, trasferring to the town hall on Water St. for a year before the freeholders reversed their decision and the Baptist congregants were allowed back into the courthouse on condition they build a meeting house, whereupon their pastor immediately resigned.

A brick 38'x65' church building with a 125' spire was built on this corner at an expense of $13,000, the cornerstone laid in 1866 and the building completed in 1868. The lot was purchased from the Hon. George M. Robeson.

A news item from April 19, 1905 reads: "The razing of the Baptist Church is now complete. The tall spire fell last Tuesday. It had been noised about town that Mr. Emery, the contractor, would finish that day, and the news called together a crowd which looked like a miniature Farmer's Picnic [precursor to Victorian Days]. As the bricks were removed from one side of the tower, this was jacked up with slabs of wood and in this way the foundation was removed, leaving a wooden structure underneath. Kerosene was poured on this and set afire, eating out the wood and the steeple with ropes attached as a guide fell with a roar that was heard all over town. Cashier [George P.] Young, who bought the building, says that 230,000 of the bricks used in the construction were made at the Little York Kiln near Oxford, now gone, and 30,000 came from Trenton. They will be used for the inner construction of the elegant new mansion Mr. Young is erecting.".

George P. Young used 470,000 bricks in the construction, many reclaimed from the church building. The house is an example of Richardsonian Romanesque style and has a hipped roof, square corner tower with spire reclaimed from the Baptist church, wrap-around porch with Ionic columns, and a curved stained glass window on the side.

Occupants of the house have included the Youngs, Coopers, Hoziers, Zardeckis, and Dr. and Mrs. Sykes. Dr. Stanton Sykes ran a prospering medical office out of his front rooms, with his wife acting as secretary and receptionist until just recently .