Qualla: First Presbyterian Church

First Presbyterian Church: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Bible on the lectern survived because someone stole it. When Union forces occupied Wilmington in February 1865, a soldier walked off with the pulpit Bible from the 1861 church on this corner. Sixty years later, on New Year's Eve 1925, that 1861 church burned to the ground, like the two before it. Everything inside was lost. Everything except the Bible the Union officer had carried home as a souvenir, which his descendants returned to the congregation in 1928. The current church, designed by Hobart Upjohn and completed that same year, opened with that Bible on its lectern. It is still there.

Image: Farragutful | CC BY-SA 4.0

First Presbyterian Church: Three Buildings, Three Fires

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0. Presbyterians have been meeting in Wilmington since at least 1760, when the first resident minister arrived. In 1785 the legislature incorporated the Protestant Presbyterian Church of Wilmington. The congregation joined the Fayetteville Presbytery in 1817 and built its first chur...

Image: Farragutful | CC BY-SA 4.0

First Presbyterian Church: The Wilson Family

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Upstateherd, CC BY-SA 4.0. Dr. Joseph R. Wilson served as the church's pastor from 1874 to 1885. His son Thomas Woodrow Wilson, who would become the 28th President of the United States, was a college student during those years. He spent one full year and most of his school vacations living with his parents...

Image: Upstateherd | CC BY-SA 4.0

First Presbyterian Church: Upjohn's Synthesis

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Starjelly3201, CC BY-SA 4.0. The current building is the work of Hobart Upjohn, grandson of Richard Upjohn, who designed Trinity Church on Wall Street. Hobart inherited the family's Gothic Revival sensibility and pushed it into the 20th century. For First Presbyterian, he combined three medieval styles in th...

Image: Starjelly3201 | CC BY-SA 4.0

First Presbyterian Church: The Skinner and the Noack

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Edward Orde, CC BY-SA 4.0. The sanctuary organ was built by Ernest M. Skinner, one of the most celebrated American organ builders of the early 20th century. Skinner tuned the instrument to the room. After a recent renovation, the organ is supposed to sound the way it did when Skinner finished it almost a c...

Image: Edward Orde | CC BY-SA 4.0