Belleville entered the 1800s with only three churches: Dutch Reformed, Episcopal, and
Methodist. The nineteenth century was a time for the organization of new churches as
the town's population changed and increased. In 1880 Belleville's black citizens
organized the Little Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, now located on Stephens
Street.

Presbyterians in the Soho section laid the cornerstone for their Montgomery Chapel in
1895. What is today's Montgomery Presbyterian Church on Mill Street began as a
Sunday school set up in 1826 for Soho quarry workers. The church opened in 1896
and came under the support of a Presbyterian church in nearby Bloomfield until it
became independent in 1922.

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