SITE OF CINCINNATI'S FIRST CHURCH - Cincinnati, Ohio
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 39° 06.041 W 084° 30.576
16S E 715356 N 4330902
Site of first church in Cincinnati, now occupied by a Federal Reserve Bank.
Waymark Code: WM3PWP
Location: Ohio, United States
Date Posted: 05/01/2008
Views: 15
The SITE OF CINCINNATI'S FIRST CHURCH is on Main St. near the NW. corner
of the intersection with Fourth St., on land originally set aside by the town
founders for religious purposes. The first church was a frame, boxlike
structure that was still unfinished in October 1792, when members oft the First
Presbyterian congregation gathered here to see James Kemper ordained as
minister. The church aslo served as a courtroom until the courthouse could
be built; in 1792 John Mays was here sentenced to be hanged for murder.
The second church, the so-called "Two-horned Church," was put up alongside
the first in 1814. The third went up in 1851; it stood near the same
ground but faced Fourth Street between Main and Walnut Streets. This
church, with its 285-foot spire, survived unitl 1934, when it gave way to a
night club. Two years later the building was razed, and the site became a
parking lot.
~ from Cincinnati: A Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors,
1943, Tour 4, pgs. 171-172
The site is now occupied by the 6-story Federal Reserve Bank Building which
was completed 1971. The building is used by the Cincinnati Branch of the
Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank.