Our History

First Presbyterian Church of Dallas was founded February 3, 1856, by the Rev. Robert Hamilton Byers, stated supply pastor for Presbyterian churches in Rusk and Henderson counties. The church began with eleven members. It lacked a formal place of worship so members met at various times in private homes, a blacksmith shop, a lumber yard, the courthouse, and a printing shop. 
Not until 1873 was the congregation able to erect its first owned building - a small frame structure at Elm and Ervay streets (later the site of the Wilson Building). As Dallas grew, First Presbyterian Church kept pace. Its second home was built in 1882 at Harwood and Main streets, the first brick church in Dallas.

By 1897 this structure had been enlarged and so extensively remodeled that it was considered to be a new (third) building. The style was Victorian eclectic. On March 2, 1913, the congregation moved into its fourth and present home, occupying a commanding position at the turn where Harwood Street intersects Wood Street.


Architectural Significance
The present sanctuary and Harwood Street Educational Building were built in 1911-12 by the Alex Watson Construction Company. The Greek Revival church edifice was designed by C.D. Hill, a prominent Dallas architect. The Corinthian columns that flank the entrance doors on Harwood and Wood Streets are monolithic - the first in Dallas. Each column was shipped to Dallas on a separate flatcar from Indiana.

The exterior walls contain the original pictorial windows of "art glass." These were prepared by the Kansas City Stained Glass Works Company and shipped to Dallas in 1912. (Art glass was invented in America and was very popular at the turn of the century.)

The interior design is a modified Akron plan. The Akron plan was developed by Akron, Ohio architects (1900-1920) to promote efficiency of movement by congregants between worship and Sunday School. This plan is characterized by a semicircular amphitheater with curved seating, opening to classrooms immediately adjacent to the Sanctuary.

Cultural Significance
First Presbyterian Church stands not only as a visual landmark in downtown Dallas, but serves as a cultural landmark as well. As the first U.S. (Southern) Presbyterian Church organized in Dallas, it is the mother church from which many other Presbyterian churches in the area have stemmed. Since its inception in 1856, coinciding with the incorporation of Dallas as a town, the congregation has worked with and for the community.

Many of its early members are familiar names in Dallas' history: Colonel J.T. Colt; lawyers John M. McCoy and E.H. Browder; city aldermen John C. Greer and Robert Lawther; Dr. George Ewell, a prominent real-estate man; J.E. Henderson of the Dallas Pacific and Southeastern Railroad Company; Charles F. Bolanz of Murphy and Bolanz Land and Loan Company--the most substantial corporation of its kind in the Southwest; and Dallas mayor John Henry Brown (1884-85).

Since the initial disbursement of food and clothing to the needy by its pioneer women, the congregation has been in the forefront of care for the disadvantaged. At the turn of the century, the need to house the city's orphaned and abandoned children was paramount. First Presbyterian Church began such a home at Annex and Bryan Streets. Today a state historical marker stands at the entrance to the Presbyterian Children's Home and Service Agency in Itasca, Texas, tracing the institution's roots to this Dallas church.

The Children's Medical Center, adjacent to the University of Texas Health-Science Center of Dallas, had its beginning as a clinic for small children in the basement of First Presbyterian Church in 1921. It was the first free clinic in the Southwest.

When the congregation began its Stewpot ministry to street people in 1975, the volunteer program ignited the concern and support of the entire community - individuals, other churches, foundations, businesses, and the city government. The Stewpot and its many related ministries, developing over the past decade, have received national recognition and today serve as models for other churches/cities.