County of building: Franklin County
Location of building: Market St. & E. 2nd St., NW corner, Washington
Built: 1868
Original Owner: Southern Presbyterian Church/Attucks School
Current Estimated value: Unknown
Historical Plaque on site:
SOUTHERN
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
A group supporting the Confederacy established this church under the leadership of Dr. Benjamin Burch. In 1883 it became the Crispus Attucks African-American School, later the Vocational Agriculture building for the Washington School District
1868
"45 SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Northwest corner Second and Market Streets
The Presbyterian Church had split over the slavery issue during the Civil War.
Dr. Benjamin Burch, the leader of the southern sympathizing faction, built this
church and that faction met here until his death in 1883, when the rift was
healed.. Later the segregated Crispus Attucks School and the High School Vocational
Agriculture Program were housed here." ~ Washington Historical Society walking tour
" ... Presbyterians helped as well to shape voluntary societies to encourage educational, missionary, evangelical, and reforming work. As the church began to realize that these functions were corporate in nature and as the century proceeded, it formed its own boards and agencies to address these needs at home and abroad. Mission to Native Americans, African Americans, and populations all over the world became a hallmark of the church.
"The nineteenth century was also characterized by disagreement and division over theology, governance, and reform-particularly slavery. The century saw the formation of additional denominations, such as the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the United Presbyterian Church of North America. When the country could not reconcile the issue of slavery and the federal union, the southern Presbyterians split from the PCUSA, forming the PCCSA in 1861, which became the Presbyterian Church in the United States. The themes of the late nineteenth and all of the twentieth century are many. To be Presbyterian is to be ecumenical, and the church participated in the many organizations such as the Alliance of the Reformed Churches throughout the World holding the Presbyterian System (which became the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in 1970 and then in 2010 joined with the Reformed Ecumenical Council to form the World Communion of Reformed Churches), the Federal Council of Churches and its successor, the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, and the Consultation on Church Union succeeded by Churches Uniting in Christ.
"This era also saw an amazing growth and decline of foreign mission work and controversy and division over worship and the confessions. Women's issues, civil rights and other social justice issues, and service to diverse congregations, including Korean Americans, were also significant in the life of the church. Reorganization and loss of membership characterized this period as well." ~ Presbyterian Historical Society