Info for Stepney Limousine Service
The Stepney Town Green, originally called Birdsey's Plain, after Joseph Birdsey who settled in the area around 1780, is in the heart of Upper Stepney and is the only green in Monroe owned and maintained by the town today. Originally the site of militia drills, the green quickly grew in size and importance during the nineteenth century, and in 1817 it was set aside as a "place of parade" for "publik use." This "parade" ground officially became Monroe's "second" town green. (The town at that point already had one green at Monroe Center, which was established in 1784 with land donated by Captain Joseph Moss and Nehemiah DeForest. Today that green is owned and maintained by the two churches that face it: Monroe Congregational Church and St. Peter's Episcopal Church.)
In 1839 the Stepney Methodist Church was built on Pepper Street. A decade later local Baptists constructed the Stepney Baptist Church on Main Street, which was a near duplicate of the Methodist Church directly across the road. Because of their structural similarities, the two were referred to as "sister churches," or the "twin churches," by those in the community. In 1973 the Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement acquired the former Stepney Methodist Church (which was relocated to Cutler's Farm Road) and transformed it into Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel, where the traditional Latin Mass is still celebrated today.
Presently the green is bordered by an antique store and other quaint retail shops, the two churches, and a cemetery where an apparition called the "White Lady" has often appeared. The Stepney Green is a piece of history nestled in Upper Stepney, which many residents feel should be preserved for generations to come.