Richard Upjohn was born in Shaftesbury, England in 1802 and was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker before coming to the United States in 1829.(1) He originally settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts and became an architectural draftsman before moving to Boston in 1833 and setting up his own practice.(2) He is most famous for designing the third Trinity Church in New York. Upjohn was highly educated and skilled at Gothic Architecture. He was a member of the Ecclesiological Society, whose goals were "to gather drawings and descriptions of medieval churches and to campaign for church restoration, reestablishing chancels and alters within them."(3) He also served as president of the American Institute of Architects from 1857 till 1876, two years before his death in 1878. Another member of the Ecclesiological Society was Rt. Rev. George Washington Doane, Bishop of New Jersey, who served as rector of St. Mary's in Burlington, New Jersey from 1833 to 1859. Doane commissioned Upjohn to design and build the "New" St. Mary's church in 1846.(4)

(1) Edited Appleton's Encyclopedia. Famous Americans Web Site (see link Below), Virtuology,2001.

(2) Calder loth and Julius Trousdale Sadler Jr."The Only Proper Style: Gothic Architecture in America", New York Graphic Society,1975.

(3) Michael J. Lewis. "The Gothic Revival", Thames and Hudson World of Art Ltd., London, 2002.

(4) St. Mary's Parrish. "'New' St. Mary's Church", Burlington, New Jersey, Church Pamphlet.

In conforming with Ecclesiological standards, the New St. Mary's Church is in the Early English Gothic Style and was actually patterned after a specific English church, St. John Baptist in Shottesbrook, England.(1) It is constructed of brown sandstone quarried from central New Jersey, and the foundations rest on boulders ten to fifteen feet below ground level. It is "correctly oriented with the chancel to the east"(2) and exhibits a classic cruciform design with the tower and spire directly above the crossing.

There have been some modifications to the church since its construction as it has endured many fires, large and small. The first of these came before the church was even finished, when lightning struck the spire of the church; luckily only a few stones were displaced as the spire had only reached about three quarters of its proposed height. Again in 1951 the roof was struck by lightning, with only minimal damage. However in April 1976, a tower floodlight ignited the interior and all that remained of the church afterwards were the walls, spire, bells and some woodwork. Restoration commenced with careful re-creation of what once was its original appearance. Those features that survived the fire were the Litany Desk, baptismal font, memorial tablets, stenciling on the south porch, the wrought iron rood screen at the chancel steps, the base of the pulpit, the gas fired corona, English Minton encaustic tiles and the top of the alter, which still bears scorch marks from the fire.(3) The original windows were simple stained-glass diamond-shaped panes that have since been replaced with traditional pictorial or figurative stained glass.

New St. Mary's also posesses another original piece of architecture called a Lych-Gate. It sits at "the entrance to the churchyard and is the place where the clergy recieve the coffin for burial rites, the word lych meaning corpse."(4) Although the New St. Mary's Church in Burlington, New Jersey is not of the grandeur of Upjohn's previous Trinity Church, it is considered one of the most important in the country for it was the first to follow a specific English medieval example. It is now considered a national landmark.

(1) Calder Loth and Julius Trousdale Sadler Jr. "The Only Proper Style: Gothic Architecture in America", New York Graphic Society,1975.

(2-3) St. Mary's Parrish. "'New' St. Mary's Church", Burlington, New Jersey, Church Pamphlet.

(4) Lawrence R. Schmid, St. Mary's Web Site (see link below), St. Mary's Parish, 1996-2001.