Clair Memorial United Methodist Church: Clair Memorial United Methodist Church

Clair Memorial United Methodist Church
679 Communipaw Avenue

The restoration of Clair Memorial United Methodist Church--the first black church in Jersey City founded by African Americans--was completed in April 2011 and reopened for services. It marked ten years after a four-alarm fire destroyed the church and parish house to the side of the church.

The present-day Clair Memorial congregation began in 1945 with the merger of two Methodist churches, St. Mark's A.M.E. Church--originally known as the "African Church"--and Thirkield Methodist Episcopal Church at Rose and Orient avenues in Jersey City.

The Communipaw Avenue church was designed by architect Abraham Davis of Jersey City in 1917. A Gothic Revival structure, the church features a square tower, buttresses, and arch windows typical for Episcopal churches in the early twentieth century. The church's cornerstone has a “1920” founding, but it does not represent its formation by the current occupant.

The congregation of approximately 140 worshipped there until the morning of Tuesday, April 10, 2001, when a fire ripped through the church.  It left only the original brick walls, floor, steel structure and gaping holes in what was the roof, and stained glass covering the gothic-style windows. Reacting to the tragedy, the New York Times identified the church as "one of the most stable institutions in the city's working class, largely black Bergen-Lafayette neighborhood since it was built" (New York Times 11 April 2001).

The day after the fire, the board of trustees of Temple Beth-El, at the corner of Kennedy Boulevard and Harrison Avenue, invited the parishioners of Clair Memorial to hold Easter services at the synagogue the following Sunday. They extended the invitation for Sunday services in the temple's social hall until repairs at Clair Memorial were completed. In recognition of this interfaith cooperation and willingness to open the synagogue to their neighbors, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) presented the two congregations with its 2001 Harmony Award, "celebrating amicable relationships between whites and blacks" (Rinn).

On May 21, 2003, groundbreaking for the $2.3 million restorations of Clair Memorial, drawn up by architect Michael Campbell of Farmingdale, NJ, was made possible from insurance revenue and fundraising. 

Commenting on the church’s reopening on April 16, 2011, pastor Rev. Hugo E. Rey expressed optimism for the congregation's continued growth possible from the church's larger seating capacity. The restored church retains some of the original exterior structure. A new entrance, stained glass panels in aluminum window frames, and fixtures for the sanctuary were installed.

“After Church Fire, Easter Services Set for Nearby Synagogue.” New York Times 13 April 2001.
Cerbo, Toni-Ann. “Clair Memorial United Methodist Church in Jersey City is Re-opening Tomorrow, a Decade after Devastating Fire Blamed in Storm.” Jersey Journal 16 April 2011.
"Fire Destroys a Venerable Black Church in Jersey City." New York Times 11 April 2001.
Espinoza, Martin. "Foundation Built on Faith." Jersey Journal 22 May 2003.
Rinn, Miriam. "CORE Honors Jersey City's Temple Beth-El." Jewish Standard 24 August 2001.
Santora, Alexander M. "Legacies, New and Old." Jersey Journal 16 January 2003.
Wichert, William. "Rebirth." Jersey Journal 6 July 2004.