Lebanon #19: First Presbyterian Church

145 West Ash Street or 590 Second Street

First Presbyterian Church on October 21, 2006

Lebanon’s First Presbyterian Church was established in 1881 and can trace its origins back to the Cumberland Church, also known as Presbyterian Church of the Frontier, which was founded in Lebanon in 1880 around the Marks, Montague, and Collins families and met in the old Masonic Hall with services led by ministers from the nearly Albany Collegiate Institute (now Lewis & Clark College in Portland).

Priscilla Catherine Montague, wife of Lebanon’s first mayor C.B. Montague, did not agree with the teachings of the Cumberland Presbyterians and started a separate Sunday School. This group turned to the Albany Collegiate Institute and the Reverend I.H. Condit, a member of the faculty and brother of the college president. In March 1881, 23 Lebanon residents including town founder J.M. Ralston petitioned and were granted the right to establish a new church. The new First Presbyterian Church was built on Second Street between Vine and Ash Streets. In the 1890s, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church merged with the First Presbyterian Church as part of a national union.

As the congregation grew, a new church building became necessary. Under the leadership of Reverend W.S. McCullough, a church building campaign was started in 1910. The Portland firm of W.F. Tobey & Wayne L. Mills was retained for architectural plans. The cornerstone was laid in April 1912, in a ceremony in which all local ministers took part. Behind the cornerstone was placed a metal box containing a copy of the city paper and of the church paper, an article on the church’s early history, a list of the charter members, the membership list of 1912, and a list of Sunday School classes. The building was completed at a cost of $14,500.

First Presbyterian Church on October 21, 2006

In 1955, an L-shaped community meeting hall with a gable roof was built off the northwest corner. The plans were drawn up by church member and builder George Harden, and it was named Harden Hall in his honor. The interior of the original church was remodeled in 1958. The church building is still home to its intended congregation, and still contains a pipe organ that reader Tim Russell remembers touring as part of Mr. Mason's music class at Lebanon Junior High School.

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