Editing Kingston, New Jersey (section)

===Kingston Presbyterian Church===
The Kingston Presbyterian Church was organized in 1723 and was initially located in a log building adjacent to the [[Millstone River]]. The old tombstones surround the site where the church once stood in the Kingston Cemetery. The Reverend [[Eleazer Wales]] was the first recorded minister of the church. The original church building in the cemetery burned down in 1791, and new building was erected in 1792 on the original foundation. The congregation used this building until 1852, when the larger building on Main Street in Kingston was constructed on land purchased from Elijah Stout. In 1853, the church building in the cemetery was sold and was later dismantled.<ref name=kpc/>  Two additions were constructed on the 1852 site. Sunday school rooms were added to the back of the structure in the late 1940s. In the late 1980s another addition was added which added a new kitchen facility, additional space in the assembly room, pastors study and office.

[[File:Kingston NJ Presby PHS738.jpg|thumb|left|Kingston Presbyterian Church and Manse pre-1923]]

The church suffered through some difficult times during the remainder of the 1700s. During this period, Princeton University was built and the village of Princeton expanded, while the population of Kingston declined. (At that time, Kingston extended as far as Snowden Lane.) Consequently, the church lost many members to the "new" Presbyterian Church down the road in Princeton.

[[File:Kingston Presbyterian Church in Kingston, New Jersey on October 31, 2019.jpg|thumb|right|Kingston Presbyterian Church circa October 31, 2019]]

It was also during this time that the Revolutionary War was fought in the area, and British officers were quartered in local homes. Gen. Washington became a recognizable figure in the Kingston area at the time. Not only did he lead his troops past the church to escape Cornwallis, but he also had his headquarters hardly a mile from the church while the Continental Congress sat in Nassau Hall.

In 1800, the Kingston Presbyterian Church began a period of prosperity and growth, which continues to this day. The church sent its first foreign missionaries to China in the early 1800s.