St. Peter's on the Lake Originally Built for Workers, Not Wealthy

Not every church in the Anglican Communion is Westminster Abbey. After Will and Kate’s royal wedding, people can be forgiven for not realizing giant stone cathedrals aren’t the only places Anglicans worship.

Even driving around the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, one could get the impression grandeur prevails. Redeemer and St. Peter’s in Morristown, Grace Madison, Calvary Summit, Grace Newark, even Christ Church in Newton are somewhat grand.

Then there’s St. Peter’s Mt. Arlington on Lake Hopatcong. The sanctuary of St. Peter’s would fit neatly into the chancel of Grace Madison, but its history is just as fascinating as the largest Anglican cathedrals.

First, the terminology: The Anglican Communion is the consortium of churches founded by King Henry VIII when he got angry at the Pope for refusing to let him divorce Catherine of Aragon. Its seat is Canterbury Cathedral, home base of the Church of England when it was Roman Catholic and Chaucer sent his pilgrims there. Its leader is the Archbishop of Canterbury, the first among equals of bishops.

Most churches in the Communion are referred to as Anglican, but the Scottish Church is known as Episcopal. Bishops must be installed by other bishops, so after the American Revolution, when the new church in the new country might have been a bit reluctant to ask a bishop from England to make a friendly visit, bishops from Scotland filled the void and the American Church became Episcopal.

St. Peter’s did not start out as an Episcopal Church. As wealthy developers built hotels around Lake Hopatcong, someone got the idea the workers needed to go to church. Catholic and Protestant chapels were constructed near the lake in what was then the Mt. Arlington section of Roxbury Township.

Legend has it that the daughter of lake developer Robert Dunlop decided to raise funds to build the chapel by holding concerts. Legend also has it that Dunlop paid off the church fund to keep his daughter from singing.

The cornerstone on the Protestant Chapel reads 1888. The building is stone with a triptych stained glass window over the original altar.

It was used by the workers and then as a summer chapel for Protestants of various denominations. It looks like a workingman’s church, with wooden floors and simple pews.

In 1926, the Episcopal Diocese of Newark took over the chapel as a mission church. First a mission of St. John’s Dover, then of St. James’ Hackettstown, St. Peter’s didn’t have its own vicar until the 1950s. The first vicars lived in a tiny house adjacent to the church, but a fire claimed that cottage and the vicarage became a historic house nearby. Eventually, heating the three story house became prohibitive and the church bought a house in a nearby development.

One of the first things the Diocese did was move the altar from under the lovely windows. The layout had the sanctuary on an angle, which is not acceptable in an Episcopal Church. The altar must be centered with the pulpit on one side and the lectern on the other. Changing the layout also opened up room for a tiny sacristy.

Eventually, the church was open for services year round, although it was more crowded in the summer for many years.

In the 1960s, the former Edgemere Hotel, renamed the Dawn Patrol and under renovation, caught fire, the fate of most of the lake hotels. All that remains is a single story that was sold to the neighboring church by owner Gus Schiavo for a very small price. Now the parish hall, it has housed a nursery school, a day care center, a thrift shop and been the scene of many church suppers, made easier than in most churches by the restaurant kitchen left from the Dawn Patrol. During the 1960s and 70s, the parish hall was the scene of a teen coffee house that attracted kids from around the lake.

In the 1970s, the Mount Arlington Historical Society, under the tireless leadership of Virginia Rooney, wife of a long-time mayor, decided to nominate 15 buildings in the borough to the state and national Registers of Historic Places. Richard Irwin, who wrote the nomination, described St. Peter’s as “vaguely Richardsonian Romanesque.” His entire  description of the church is not flattering, but most of the people who have attended St. Peter’s over the years think it is beautiful in its simplicity.

In 1988, the church celebrated 100 years, still a mission. Parishioners dressed in period costume, local papers snapped pictures and Bishop John Shelby Spong led the procession. Written for the anniversary was a church history, the source of most of this story.

Spong had brought Vicar Roger Snyder up from Virginia to bring St. Peter’s from mission to parish. He did, and less than a year after the 100th anniversary, Snyder became the first rector of the new parish.