The Old First Reformed Church of Philadelphia was founded as the German Reformed Church of Philadelphia in 1727. Its records document over two hundred years of one of Philadelphia's oldest Protestant congregations making this a very relevant historical and cultural site for our fair city. The church predates the Declaration of Independence by nearly 50 years.
The present structure is the third church on the site and was dedicated in 1837, in a German-speaking neighborhood. There are several dates on the date stone I found at the front, far right of the building, including 1727, 1747, 1772, 1837 & 1967. The date stone, white marble I think, is placed in line with gray, oblong, rectangular stones which make a, for lack of a better word, a decorative stone chair rail which wraps around the front. The stone was inserted on 9-28-1980 I believe as this date is written in small numbers at the bottom right of the stone. Also, the present incarnation of this church was built in 1837 with some additions since then so I guess the 1837 date is the most relevant, while the other dates are more historical in nature.
In the 1830s, deterioration of the original 1700s church building and growing traffic noise on Race Street caused the congregation to build a third church, which opened in 1837. This building had the same dimensions as the second church, but was rotated 180 degrees and set back farther from the street, in an effort to reduce the impact of street noise. Although it has not been in continuous use as a house of worship, this church is the one used by the congregation today. SOURCE
In 1935, Old First Reformed Church merged with St. John's Reformed Church, located at 40th and Spring Garden streets. Founded in 1865, St. John's was known for a time as the Reformed Church of the Strangers. A decline in the number of congregants in its neighborhood led St. John's to seek a merger with Old First. The merger increased the membership in Old First Reformed Church from 593 to 689. Over the following two decades, congregation size leveled off at about 600.
In the 1960s, faced with declining membership in their West Philadelphia location, the Reformed congregation began an effort to return to their original site on Race Street. After buying back the property, they began restoring the 1837 church building, which had been used as a paint factory. The building was rededicated in 1969. Over the decade following the move, the congregation grew from about 100 to almost 300 members.
The Old First Reformed Church has gone through several changes in denominational affiliation. Originally, all German Reformed congregations in North America were supervised by the Dutch Reformed Church in Holland. The Synod of the German Reformed Church in the United States of America, a body independent from the European church, was formed in 1793. In 1863, it changed its name to the Reformed Church in the United States. (This denomination was distinct from the Reformed Church in America, descendent of the Dutch Reformed Church.) In 1934, most of the Reformed Church in the United States merged with the Evangelical Synod of North America, another denomination founded by German Protestants, to form the Evangelical and Reformed Church. In 1957, the Evangelical and Reformed Church merged with the Congregational Christian Churches to form the United Church of Christ (UCC).
Largely reflecting this denominational evolution, the name of the Old First Reformed Church has changed repeatedly. Originally it was known as the German Reformed Congregation or German Reformed Church, less commonly as High German Reformed Church, High German Evangelical Reformed Church, or Calvinist Congregation. Later the congregation took the name First Reformed Church. In 1876, Rev. David Van Horne wrote that it was sometimes called the Race Street Reformed Church. After the 1934 merger with the Evangelical Synod, it became the Old First Church, Evangelical and Reformed (sometimes referred to as the First Evangelical and Reformed Church). After the UCC came into being in 1957, the congregation's official name became Old First Reformed Church, United Church of Christ.