Princeton Presbyterian builds 750-seat facility
By Greg Forester
Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — The Princeton Presbyterian Church’s beginnings 25 years ago were on a tiny scale, with services initially held in the pastor’s Princeton living room.
The current building on Meadow Road was purchased in 1989 and now a new construction project has begun expanding it into a 750-seat facility with classrooms and other space for its growing congregation.
The project involves building a new and expanded worship sanctuary, a new basement reception area and outdoor plaza and conversion of the old worship space into classrooms and offices to accommodate church.
”We just started the Princeton Presbyterian Preschool here, and our deacons and other officials run many community ministries at the building,” said the Rev. Dr. Kenneth Smith.
With a new stone façade and other amenities, the building will also be more visually pleasing than the current incarnation, church officials said.
”From an aesthetic point of view, it is going to be a very beautiful building, with stone walls of the more traditional looking sort that you would see at the seminary in Princeton, or in Princeton itself,” said Church Administrator Megan Dyal.
One of the centerpieces of the new building is a 100-foot stone tower that will be one of the tallest structures in West Windsor and Princeton, according to church officials.
Other features include a balcony area, a first-floor worship space, and a basement reception area that will open up to an outdoor plaza adjacent to the church.
”The basement area will be a full reception hall for community events and social activities,” the Rev. Dr. Smith said. “Along with the outdoor plaza, it will be a very nice reception area.”
Since it began after the Rev. Dr. Smith graduated from the Princeton Theological Seminary, the church has called many locations in the Princeton area its home.
”It started as an ever-expanding home study group, and then moved to the American Boychoir School, the Princeton Borough Hall, and the John Witherspoon Middle School,” said the Rev. Dr. Smith. “Then we purchased the current property in 1989, and we recently celebrated our 25th anniversary.”
Its next incarnation will be as a much larger structure on Meadow Road in West Windsor.
Construction began in the spring, but inclement weather has slowed the work slightly, according to Ms. Dyal.
”But that is just our point of view, and in reality it is going quite well,” she added.
The skeleton of the new building is already visible in front of the church’s Meadow Road site, and construction crews are getting ready to pour the slabs that will be the church’s foundation.
The company providing some of the construction materials — Barden Churches — is known for providing prefabricated structural components for churches nationwide, but the pieces used in the Princeton Presbyterian Church are customized for some of the building’s features, church officials said.
”It is a very unique design,” Ms. Dyal said.
The original building and its worship space — now 26 years old — will be divided into two floors and split up into smaller rooms for use by the congregation’s expanding services.
This portion of the work will involve removing the church’s roof and installing new flooring and walls, as the structure currently has a single story, with a sanctuary consisting of a single high-ceiling room that will be divided into two floors and many additional rooms.
In support of the new church’s expanded seating capacity and services is the expanded parking area.
The Princeton Presbyterian Church’s construction work represents its prosperity at a time when some area churches have experienced shrinking attendance, Ms. Dyal said.
”Few churches in this area have expanded in this area, whether due to attrition or other reasons, so we are proud of the work being done over here and what it represents” Ms. Dyal said.
The current expansion is only the latest the Princeton Presbyterian Church has experienced, preceded by the addition of a youth wing along with an expansion of the church sanctuary, according to church officials.

