First Presbyterian Church
of San Antonio
B
E X A R C O U N T Y |
Marker No: 1813
Aluminum 27 x 42 Subject Marker
Geographic: 29.427652,-98.484070
Location: 409 4th Street, San Antonio
|
Marker Text: In 1844 a Presbyterian, the Rev. John McCullough, and a Methodist, the Rev. John Wesley DeVilbiss, visited San Antonio and conducted the first Protestant worship service. The board of foreign missions in 1846 sent the Rev. McCullough to San Antonio to organize this church. After two years the membership erected an adobe building on Commerce Street. It served as the first Protestant church in the city. The fellowship declined in 1849, and in 1851 the Rev. Dr. Daniel Baker, founder of the Presbyterian church in the Republic of Texas, and six members reorganized the congregation.
The contract for a new church house was let in 1859. For construction on the northeast corner of Flores and Houston streets, with the beginning of the Civil War, the fellowship broke with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and building construction was hauled. A storm in 1868 destroyed the adobe church building. The second house of worship was finally completed in 1879 under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. J.W. Neil. The Rev. Dr. Arthur Gray Jones led in the erection in 1910 of this Gothic revival structure, designed by Atless B. Ayres. In the 1920s, during the pastorate of Rev. P.B. Hill. Radio broadcasts off services began and the attached education building was completed. (1979) |