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First Presbyterian Church (Philadelphia, Pa.) Records, 1769-1944
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Held at: Presbyterian Historical Society [Contact Us]425 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147-1516
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Presbyterian Historical Society. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Presbyterians began gathering for worship in Philadelphia in 1692, sharing a building known as the "Barbadoes Warehouse" at Second and Chestnut streets with Baptists and Congregationalists. In 1698, the congregation officially organized as the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. Six years later, the congregation moved to High Street (now Market Street) at the corner of Bank Street, and built the first Presbyterian church building in the city, known as "Old Buttonwood." Both the first American presbytery and the first synod met in this church building. In 1820, the church moved to a new building on the south side of Washington Square where it remained until the late 1920s, when it moved to 15th and Locust streets. In 1949, First and Second Presbyterian Churches united as First with the congregation moving into the Second Presbyterian Church building at 21st and Walnut streets, where the congregation continues today.
This collection contains miscellaneous items dealing with the development and growth of the First Presbyterian Church. A diverse nature of administrative concerns are contained within. Included are items dealing with the church's history, such as correspondence, financial reports and miscellaneous documents.
More information can be found on the Presbyterian Historical Society's website.
Selected materials from this collection were digitized from 2018-2021 as part of the Philadelphia Congregations Early Records project. The Philadelphia Congregations Early Records project was made possible by a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant from CLIR, the Council on Library and Information Resources, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Digtized materials are viewable on the PhiladelphiaCongregations.org website. Some items have been transcribed, and users are invited to contribute to the transcription effort. In addition, all of the digitized records are available in the ATLA (American Theological Library Association) Digital Library, and archival copies of the scanned images are preserved on the OPenn website at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries.
Links to Digital Resources for this Collection:
- Browse all digitized items from First Presbyterian Church on the Philadelphia Congregations website.
- Browse all digitized items from First Presbyterian Church on the ATLA Digital Library.
- Browse all archival images from First Presbyterian Church on the OPenn website.
Organization
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Presbyterian Historical Society
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by project staff.
- Finding Aid Date
- 2022
- Sponsor
- The digitization of materials was made possible by a Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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This collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
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Copyright restrictions may exist. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from this collection.