Community of St. John Baptist & St. Marguerite’s Retreat House
Tucked away in the New Jersey countryside is a beautiful, and little known, treasure. The Convent and Retreat House, which are now available for filming, provide a number of stunning views in this unique and striking compound. The Community of St. John Baptist, originally founded in England in 1852, has been in Mendham, New Jersey since the early 1900’s. Most of the Sisters of the Community of St. John Baptist are trained spiritual directors, engaging in a variety of charitable works and facilitating spiritual guidance for all faiths. The main convent in Mendham, New Jersey includes several different structures. The Convent building was built as the Mother House in 1913, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. The architects designed a stunning Tudor Revival building to perfectly complement the Retreat House, which had been built in the same style a few years prior.
St. Marguerite’s Retreat House is styled after an English Manor House. Originally built as a children's home in 1908, and converted into the Retreat House in the 1960’s, it offers a wide variety of spaces from a chapel, library and solarium to guest and meeting rooms. There is also a former-school building which is now used as a high-risk youth center, a small church, extensive grounds and plenty of parking. Aesthetically, the grounds and buildings have an old world feel, strengthening the community connections between the Sisters of the Community in the United States, and their counterparts who still remain in the United Kingdom to this day. Both the Convent and the Retreat House have undergone many different uses over the decades, as the Community’s mission evolved and changed over time in keeping with the needs of the broader community. The Community is on 79 acres of wooded land, the Sisters note that it is “a sacred space which lends itself to prayer.” Full of beautiful walking paths, dense, still woods, and a labyrinth, the grounds offer their own unique and distinct look.
Mendham, NJ
Photography by Gary Sapolin, and courtesy of The Community of St. John Baptist Convent and Retreat House.
