HISTORY OF FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
First Presbyterian Church was founded March 17, 1819. It has the distinction of being the first church organized in the city of Edwardsville, and one of the oldest Presbyterian churches in Illinois. The congregation is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), a mainline Protestant denomination composed of 2.5 million members in 11,200 congregations. As a connectional church, we are part of the Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery, which encompasses 99 congregations in the greater St. Louis metropolitan area.
First Presbyterian is one of the few churches that can claim ties to both ministers after whom the presbytery is named. The congregation was formed with 15 members by the Rev. Salmon Giddings, a Princeton-trained minister who was the first Protestant Missionary to the St. Louis region. Elijah Parish Lovejoy was a Presbyterian minister and journalist who published an abolitionist newspaper. In 1837 he died in Alton at the hands of an angry mob while defending his printing press, becoming the first martyr for freedom of the press in America. Presiding at Lovejoy’s committal service was the Rev. Thomas Lippincott, an early pastor of this congregation.
Construction on our third and current home of worship took place in 1924. A large Christian education annex was added in 1960. Several improvements including the elevator, and a covered courtyard called “The Inner Room,” were completed in association with the 175th Anniversary celebration in 1994.
First Presbyterian Church
