First Presbyterian Church

Capital City & Lake Murray Country

The Presbyterians organized their first congregation in Columbia in 1795. The present church, the second on this site, was completed c. 1854 and survived the “Burning of Columbia,” while others in the downtown area didn’t. It is a fine example of early English Gothic architecture with a reddish-brown stucco exterior and vaulted ribbed ceiling. The 188- foot spire is one of the city’s distinctive skyline features. The adjacent cemetery, established in 1798, is a “who’s who” of Columbia with the earliest marker dating from 1804. Buried here are veterans from the Revolutionary and Civil War to today. There is a broken granite pillar from the burned State House dedicated to the Civil War veterans. Also, in the graveyard are the burials of Ann Pamela Cunningham, savior of Mt. Vernon; Henry W. DeSaussare, the first director of the US Mint and the Rev. and Mrs. Joseph Wilson, the parents of President Woodrow Wilson.

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

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