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The First Presbyterian
Church
COLUMBIA
To the service and
glory of the adorable and incomprehensible Trinity, we
solemnly dedicate this building with all that appertains to
it.
—Ending of sermon of
dedication by the pastor
Dr. Benjamin M. Palmer, Sunday,
October 9, 1853.
The oldest congregation in Columbia is that of
the First Presbyterian Church, organized in 1795.
During the pastorate of the Reverend David K. Dunlap, 1804, services were held
in the State House. This continued until 1813 when a frame
building was erected, which was dedicated in 1814, on the site of the
present church.
On August 18, 1851, a committee
advertised for the erection of a "church edifice" to be
completed in 1852. The building was to be of Gothic design, with the height of tower
and spire to be one hundred and eighty feet, materials to be
brick and stucco, with a tin roof.
This building was
dedicated on Sunday, October 9, 1853, by the pastor, Dr.
Benjamin M. Palmer. It is similar to the First Presbyterian
Church of Baltimore,
so it is possible that N. G. Starkwether, an architect of
Baltimore at that time, may have been the designer of this
church.
A cyclone in
1875 blew down the spire and damaged the building. The
structure was repaired at once, but the spire was not rebuilt
until
1888.
Unfortunately, the massive white marble pulpit,
carved in Italy, was removed some years ago, but may still be
seen in the basement of the
present Sunday School building.
It is interesting to
note that on the Sunday School rolls in 1869 there were one
hundred and one white and three hundred and twenty-five Negro pupils.
It was in
this church that President Woodrow Wilson during his boyhood
was received by profession of faith into the denomination of
his ancestors.
The
burying ground is part of a "public burial ground" set apart
by an Act of the legislature in 1798. It is beautifully kept
and in it we find the graves
of some of our most famous South Carolinians. Perhaps the most
interesting of these are the graves of the parents of
Woodrow Wilson and his
sister, Mrs. George Howe, Jr. Ann Pamela Cuningham, originator
of the plan to make Mount Vernon the shrine of all Americans and first regent
of the Mount Vernon Association, lies in this churchyard.
This, also, is the last resting place of Chancellor H. W. DeSaussure, Jonathan
Maxcy, first president of South Carolina College, and United
States Senators F. H. Elmore and William F. Daussure.
BY
HAZEL CROWSON SELLERS
South Carolina Churches
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