First Presbyterian Church - Rochester, NY
Posted by: 
sagefemme
N 43° 09.180 W 077° 36.885
18T E 287400 N 4781124
At the corner of S Plymouth and Spring Street in the Bevier Historic District.
Waymark Code: WMDAC5
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 12/13/2011
Views: 6
This was once the home of First Presbyterian Church starting in 1871, and one of its offshoots for many years. Note the "City of Rochester Distinguished Landmark - 1871" plaque. It is decidedly of Gothic architectural style, which is one of the reasons it is listed as a historic landmark. The architect was Andrew J Warner, who (along with J Foster Warner) went on to build the next church for the same congregation, at 121 N Fitzhugh Street, which is now known as Downtown United Presbyterian Church (DUPC) and which is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places under the name Brick Presbyterian Church Complex.
This church congregation was started by Rev. Comfort Williams in 1815, and was the first church to form in Rochester. It counted among its congregation the second mayor of Rochester, Jacob Gould and historian Everard Peck. First Presbyterian Church occupied a small, wood-framed building on what is now State St. (Source: DUPC website) Its second building was built of stone at the corner of W Broad and S Fitzhugh Sts, and it burned down in 1869. (A. J. Warner also received a commission to design a new City Hall in 1873 to be built on the site of the burned church a year after construction at this South Plymouth location completed.) This was the third church for Rochester's oldest congregation.
According to the NRHP nomination form, it is built of Albion sandstone, and the woodwork and trusses on the interior are of black walnut. In 1930, Mrs. Charles P. Ford gave a tiffany window depicting John the Baptist. (Source: NRHP nomination form)