The First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York

The First Presbyterian Church was founded on Wall Street in 1716. As the congregation thrived, the original building was enlarged in 1748, but closed for seven years during the Revolution. When the war ended, worshipers returned to find that the British had used their building as a barracks and then a stable; it was irreparably damaged when the British burned New York. A post-revolutionary building was dedicated in 1811, but fire took that within a short time. That building was replaced, but the Great Fire of 1835 destroyed it and most of New York. After the fire, Wall Street was rebuilt as a commercial area and the population moved north.

After much debate, “Old First” decided to move with the population and acquired the present property on Fifth Avenue in the Village of Greenwich (now Greenwich Village). The new Perpendicular Gothic Revival building, modeled after the Church of St. Saviour in Bath, England, was designed by Joseph C. Wells and dedicated in 1846. In 1893, a south transept was added by McKim, Mead & White, and the chancel was added in 1919. The merger in 1918 of First Presbyterian, University Place Presbyterian, and Madison Square Presbyterian provided a pulpit for Harry Emerson Fosdick, one of the nation’s best known liberal preachers.

SOURCES:

https://www.history.pcusa.org/collections/research-tools/guides-archival-collections/rg-413

https://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/FirstPres.html