At Franklin and Washington streets, the Episcopal Church of the Advent shows you its Carpenter Gothic board-and-batten siding and lancet windows. This Carpenter Gothic building shows its style in board-and-batten siding, steep roofs, lancet windows and a rose window, though it notably lacks the usual belfry tower at the front entrance. The church was designed by Henry Sims and built by Richard Soder beginning in 1865 for St. John's Chapel, a 'summer chapel' that had been organized two years earlier; it was not consecrated until 1871.
In 1950 St. John's merged with the Episcopal Church of the Advent, which had been formed in 1899. Today it remains an active parish in the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey; its rector is the Rev. H. Alan Leonard and the Rev. Daniel Hall serves as assisting clergy. The congregation reported 340 members in 2015 and 331 members in 2023; no membership statistics were reported nationally in 2024 parochial reports.
Plate and pledge income reported for the congregation in 2024 was $226,026, and average Sunday attendance in 2024 was 61 persons, down from a reported 125 in 2016. Notice the lancet windows and the rose window crowning a façade that still lacks its belfry.