Main content

Second Presbyterian Church (Philadelphia, Pa.) Records, 1759-1940

Notifications

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 who favored the religious revivalism of George Whitefield organized a Second Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia in 1743. Second was a “New Side” church as opposed to the “Old Side” First Presbyterian Church. For many years, the congregation worshipped in its building at Third and Arch streets, where the first General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. met in 1789. In 1837, the church moved to Seventh and Arch, and in 1872, to 21st and Walnut. In 1949, the congregation united with First Presbyterian Church.

This record group consists of records of the corporation, session, the Board of Trustees, and other organizations of the Church, two thirds of the material being the records of the Board of Trustees, its committees, and the treasurers, from 1759-1940. The bulk of the records covers the post-Revolutionary period through the nineteenth century. The records were created by the various lawyers, businessmen and physicians who served as elders, trustees, treasurers and members of committees. The records include correspondence, reports, accounts, bills, minutes and other records of the operation of the Church, and deal with as pew rentals, building construction and maintenance, management of the congregational school and the burial grounds, church finances and pulpit supply.

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:

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

This collection is open for research use. Some of the original minute books are in extremely fragile condition and must be handled with great care. They should not be photocopied.

Use Restrictions

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.

Collection Inventory

Callnumber RG 33-1-41
Callnumber V MI46 P533b v. 6
Callnumber V MI46 P533b v. 1
Callnumber V MI46 P533b v. 2
Callnumber V MI46 P533b v. 3
Callnumber V MI46 P533b v. 5
Callnumber V MI46 P533b v. 7
Callnumber V MI46 P533b v. 8
Callnumber V MI46 P533b v. 9
Callnumber Map Case 15.5
Callnumber Map Case 3.27
Callnumber Map Case 3.17
Callnumber Map Case 4.23
Callnumber RG 33-3-2
Callnumber V MI46 P533p v. 1
Callnumber V MI46 P533p v. 2
Callnumber V MI46 P533p v. 3
Callnumber V MI46 P533p v. 4
Callnumber V MI46 P533p v. 5
Callnumber V MI46 P533p v. 6
Callnumber V MI46 P533p v. 8
Callnumber V MI46 P533p v. 9
Callnumber RG 33-5-5
Callnumber V MI46 P533s

Print, Suggest