First Presbyterian Church

About this property

First Presbyterian Church is located in central Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The congregation is associated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). When the city of Davenport was formed in 1836 there were between 10 and 12 people who were Presbyterian. In the first couple of years they worshiped with other Protestant congregations. In April 1838, they formed their own congregation. They gathered in a small building owned by T.S. Hoge on Ripley Street between Front (present-day River Drive) and Second Streets. They managed the best they could with supply ministers who visited from time to time. The group was organized into a church on May 5, 1839, in a small frame schoolhouse on the corner of Fourth and Harrison Streets. The clergy in attendance at the service that day included Rev. Ithamar Pillsbury of Macomb, Illinois, Rev. M. Hummer of Stephenson (present-day Rock Island, Illinois), and the Rev. Enoch Mead of Rockingham, Iowa, which is now the southwest section of Davenport. They were also the supply clergy who occasionally visited the congregation. In 1842, J.M.D. Burrows and T.S. Hoge were chosen and ordained elders of the church. Rev. Samuel Cleland had charge of the Davenport and Stephenson congregations for four years starting in 1843. At this time, they built their first church in Davenport, even though the congregation was still very small. In 1846, the congregation only numbered 17. From 1847 to 1849, the congregation was irregularly served by a pastor. Stability for the congregation came in November 1849 when the Rev. J.D. Mason became the pastor. At this time, the church consisted of about 30 members. By 1857, the congregation had grown to 200. The congregation built another church building in 1853 on Third Street between Harrison and Main Streets. In 1864, they sold that property and purchased the former St. Luke's Episcopal Church on Brady Street. This building served the congregation for over thirty years, until the decision was made to build a new church closer to the center of the parish. The ground was broken for the new church at the corner of Kirkwood Boulevard and Iowa Street on March 18, 1898. The church's cornerstone was laid on July 20 of the same year, and the new church was dedicated on December 17, 1899. The old church became the Academy of Sciences, a forerunner of the Putnam Museum The new church was designed by the Galesburg, Illinois architectural firm of Gottschalk & Beadle. They were the same firm that designed an almost identical Central Congregational Church in Galesburg. The building is constructed of Marquette brownstone, and it has a magnesian stain. The architectural style is Romanesque with a tower in the Richardsonian style. There are carved oak leaves and foliage on the gables in the Renaissance style. The interior is octagonal, and the ceiling is marked with a Maltese cross and a Greek cross. The stained glass windows were created by the J&R Lamb Studios of New York City.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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