History:

Grace Episcopal Church in Nutley began with children and their need for Christian Education. Thomas Satterthwaite, an Episcopalian whose estate stretched from the River to Passaic Avenue and from Grant Avenue to Rutgers Place, and his neighbors had to travel by boat or carriage to Christ Church in Belleville to attend services. In order for their children to attend Sunday School closer to home, he started an Episcopal Sunday School on his estate in 1863.

In 1872, the Satterthwaite family gave a parcel of land at Grant and Whitford Avenues for the establishment of the Episcopal Church in Franklin. A little white frame church was built in the Spring of 1873 with the first services being celebrated on Easter Day of that year. The church seated about 150 persons with the undercroft serving as the Sunday School for about 40 restless children.

Until 1878, the fledgling Grace Church was a mission chapel with the Rev. William H. Carter, rector of Christ Church, Bloomfield, as vicar. Three years later, the Rev. B.C. Huntington was called to be the first rector. After only three months, he resigned because his salary of $500 per year could not be paid. The first permanent rector was the Rev. William R. Nairn, Mr. Satterthwaite's son-in-law, who served from 1879 until his death in 1889. The congregation averaged about 60 adults with the same number in Sunday School. During the Rev. William Nairn's rectorship, all the church's debt was paid and the church was consecrated by Bishop Starkey.