First Presbyterian Church of Champaign
First Presbyterian Church of Champaign
302 W. Church St., Champaign
Location of the building is the same, rennovations changed exterior completely
John A. Steele organized the First Presbyterian Church of Champaign in September 1850, when the town was still called West Urbana. Until 1855, services were held at a depot building near the railroad.
Echoing the national controversy in the Presbyterian church, Old School and New School Presbyteriansims split local membership. In December 1856, the church dismissed ten members, and those dismissed created Urbana's First Presbyterian Church (N. S.). Forty-four members were dismissed from the church in April 1858 and organized into the First Presbyterian Church (O. S.) in Mahomet, closer to their settlements.
Named on the 1863 map, Rev. George McKinley was given the pastorate in September of 1858. When he started, there were around forty members. When McKinley resigned in 1869, the membership had grown to 140. He led the church through the unstable years of the Civil War, earning the respect of his community. The current building was erected in Champaign during his time in the pastorate.
"The Founding of the First Presbyterian and the First Congregationalist churches of Champaign, as Urbana institutions, has already been described as a salient fact in the founding of the new railroad town itself."
- J. R. Stewart, A Standard History of Champaign County Illinois (1918), p. 393