13 SOUTH LOCUST STREET
Building in 2013
Presbyterian Church date unknown (UCHS) HISTORICAL SKETCH
In the fall of 1849, members of the Presbyterian Church in Buckhannon petitioned to be organized into a church under the care of the Presbytery of Greenbrier. The petition was granted and this congregation was born. In 1851 the church trustees purchased a lot on the corner of Lincoln and Kanawha Streets on which to build a church building. During the Civil War, the church was used to store supplies and ammunition for the northern army. During a southern raid, the southern soldiers entered the church and dragged much of it into the street, taking what they could carry. Two southern sympathizers in town then burned the church. Between the Civil War and the construction of this current building in 1873, the congregation met in the Methodist Episcopal South Church, still standing and now the home of the Upshur County Historical Society’s History Center on West Main Street. The construction of this building, started in 1873, was completed in 1874 but not dedicated until 1879. The steeple was erected in 1988 in memory of W. David Williams. The building has been in continual use by the congregation from its erection in 1873 to this date.
WORKS CITED
First Presbyterian Church Anniversary Committee. The Buckhannon Presbyterian Church, 150 Years in Review.
Buckhannon, WV: Mountain State Print Inc., 1999.
