130-Year-Old Letter Found in Cape May Church During Renovations

Workers found an old letter from 1891 behind the ceiling plaster of Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church in Cape May. The yellowed paper, hidden for more than a century, shows building costs and names the workers who did the plastering work at the church.

Rev. Alexander Heritage Newton wrote the note on June 19, 1891, while he was pastor from 1889 to 1892. His note mentions paying workers $250 for their plastering work.

“We've known about this letter now for a while now,” Mark David Boberick, co-chair of the East Lynne Theater company's board, said to NJ Advance Media about the discovery. “History is like that onion where you just sort of keep peeling it back, and there's all these layers. That's what we're in the middle of right now.”

The letter remains stuck under layers of sheetrock, and city officials are trying to figure out how to safely get it out. They found it on Juneteenth, the day that marks when enslaved Americans were freed.

The city bought the building after it was damaged by fire. Now called the Clemans Theater at Allen AME Church, it will be home to the East Lynne Theater Company's shows for 25 years.

The church is one of several important Black history sites, located close to the Harriet Tubman Museum and Franklin Street School library. Local and state groups are working to save this historic building.

The way Newton's letter was carefully placed might show how much church members respected their pastor. Newton, who fought in the Civil War, worked hard to support rights for Cape May's Black community.

Theater workers and local history buffs are thrilled about finding this glimpse into the past. Every new detail helps tell more of Cape May's Black history story.