OLD FIRST CHURCH/FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
265 Jackson Street—Stop 3 on Washington Park Walking Tour
This ca. 1870 picture shows First Presbyterian Church on the northwest corner of Jackson and W Washington Sts. Image courtesy of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.
The beginning of what is now known as First Presbyterian Church, also called the Old First Church, occurred one year after the founding of Sandusky.
On May 28, 1819 a meeting was held under the leadership of two missionaries that were sponsored by both the Congregationalist and Presbyterian denominations. This sponsorship was done under the 1801 Plan of Union, which was a cooperative effort by both groups to jointly send out missionaries who worked to establish churches in what was then the northern Ohio frontier.
For the first 33 years after this meeting, local members of both the Congregationalist and Presbyterian denominations worshiped together at First Congregational Church. By the mid-1800s, however, divisions between the two groups began to surface. A growing local population meant that both denominations could independently attract new members, and the question of slavery also emerged as another area of dispute. While the Presbyterian denomination at the time was more moderate in its position on the issue, some local Congregationalist members were strong abolitionists who participated in the local activities of the Underground Railroad.
Given these differences, on December 11, 1852 a group of 26 Presbyterian members chose to leave First Congregational and form their own church. The organizational meeting of what became First Presbyterian occurred in January 1853, and what served as their temporary church (called the Chapel) was built and opened by November 1853. This building still exists at the back of the current First Presbyterian along West Washington Street.
Construction began on First Presbyterian’s main sanctuary building on the corner of Jackson Street and West Washington Street shortly after completion of the Chapel, and it was dedicated in June 1855. New York City architect John Rogers created the plans for the structure, which is designed in Romanesque Revival style using limestone as the building material. The master builder for the sanctuary building was local contractor John Irvin, who also was an active member in Sandusky’s Underground Railroad.
The current appearance of the front of First Presbyterian’s main sanctuary building, however, is different than what was completed in 1855. Many of the building’s most distinctive features, including its Rose Window and arched front doorway are the result of a renovation in 1926-1927 that altered the front of the building.
The black and white picture (above) taken in the early 1900s shows the original appearance of the front of First Presbyterian’s main sanctuary building, while this color picture taken in 1987 shows the front of this building as it appears today. Images courtesy of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.
Prior to the renovation, the entrances to First Presbyterian’s main sanctuary were located right on the corner of West Washington and Jackson Streets in the bell tower, and the church’s historical record notes that “the doors were small and it proved to be a burden for church members to enter the sanctuary.” The church’s historical record also says that the steps leading up to the 1855 entrance “extended out and became part of the sidewalk,” which was considered to be “quite objectionable and deemed unsafe.” The renovation of the front of the building allowed First Presbyterian to “make a center entrance; three doorways of ample size, with large steps across the front of the church” and eliminate these accessibility issues.