A History of First Presbyterian Church of Greensburg

For more than two centuries, First Presbyterian Church of Greensburg has stood at the heart of the community’s worship, service, music, education, and civic life. Its story is inseparable from the story of Greensburg itself: a congregation rooted in the early life of Westmoreland County, shaped by generations of faithful Presbyterians, and carried forward through worship, architecture, music, mission, and community care.

A Congregation Rooted in Greensburg Since 1788

First Presbyterian traces its origins to 1788, when Presbyterian worship began taking organized shape in Greensburg. The congregation’s earliest story is tied to what is now St. Clair Park, a site that served both as a place of worship and as a burial ground in the young community. In the early nineteenth century, William Jack deeded land for a Presbyterian house of worship and graveyard, and the first church building was erected there in 1816.
This original site reminds us that the church’s first ministry was not only to its members, but also to the emerging life of Greensburg itself. In those early decades, church, town, cemetery, family, civic life, and faith were deeply interwoven. The church gathered people for worship, marked the seasons of life, and helped form a spiritual center for the growing borough.
Across generations, the people of First Presbyterian have built more than sanctuaries. They have built a community of faith: worshiping together, teaching children, serving neighbors, making music, marking life’s sacred moments, and carrying forward the stories entrusted to them. Each chapter of the church’s history reflects the devotion of those who prayed, gave, sang, taught, cooked, rang bells, welcomed strangers, comforted the grieving, and helped shape a congregation rooted deeply in Greensburg’s past and alive to God’s continuing call.

St. Clair Park and the First Church Home

First Church Building: 1816-1848

For many years, the congregation worshiped at the St. Clair Park site. The old Presbyterian graveyard, later associated with St. Clair Cemetery, preserves the memory of the earliest generations who built the church’s life through prayer, preaching, burial, marriage, baptism, and community service.

The first church building, used by the congregation from 1816 to 1848, represented the earliest permanent Presbyterian presence in Greensburg. Its simple form reflected the needs and resources of the young congregation, yet its importance was immense. It gave the people of First Presbyterian a settled place to gather for worship, preaching, sacrament, prayer, and community life.

Historical Marker of the First Building

St. Clair Park Today

Among the early figures connected with this era was the Rev. Robert Henry, the congregation’s third minister, whose family connection to James Buchanan places the church’s early story within a broader regional and national history. The St. Clair Park marker and burial ground remain visible reminders that First Presbyterian’s roots are older than its present sanctuary and deeply embedded in Greensburg’s earliest civic landscape

Moving to Main Street: The Second Church 

Second Building 1848-1884

One of the most fascinating artifacts from this era is a surviving pew certificate. In the nineteenth century, churches often financed construction and ongoing operations through the sale or rental of pews. A pew certificate connected with First Presbyterian offers a glimpse into the financial, social, and congregational life of the church during this period.

In 1848, the congregation moved from St. Clair Park to Main Street with the construction of its second church building. This move marked a major turning point in the life of First Presbyterian. The church carried its early Presbyterian heritage from the St. Clair Park grounds into the heart of Greensburg’s developing public, commercial, and religious center.
The second church served the congregation from 1848 to 1884. Its location on Main Street placed First Presbyterian in a prominent position within the growing town and helped establish the congregation’s long-standing downtown presence. This building represents a period of growth, stability, and deepening community identity in the nineteenth century.

Pew Certificate (signed by John Armstrong Jr.)

The Third Church: A Growing Downtown 

The Third Church Building 1884-1916

The third church stood during a period of significant growth and change in the city. Greensburg’s downtown was developing as a center of government, commerce, transportation, education, and worship. In that setting, First Presbyterian’s Main Street presence mattered. The church was not hidden away from public life; it stood visibly within the daily movement of the community, near the courthouse, businesses, schools, homes, and other institutions that shaped the life of the county seat.
This building served the congregation from 1884 until 1916, carrying First Presbyterian through more than three decades of worship, preaching, Sunday School, music, fellowship, baptisms, weddings, funerals, and community life. It was the church home of generations who helped deepen First Presbyterian’s identity as both a congregation and a civic presence. ​The third church formed an important bridge in the congregation’s architectural story, carrying First Presbyterian’s Main Street ministry forward while anticipating the Gothic Revival sanctuary that would follow.

By the 1880s, First Presbyterian had been on Main Street for more than a generation. The second church had carried the congregation from its St. Clair Park origins into the civic heart of Greensburg, but the continued growth of the congregation and the town called for a larger and more prominent church home.
In 1884, First Presbyterian entered another major chapter with the construction of its third church building on Main Street. Historic photographs show a substantial Victorian-era Gothic church with a tall square tower, arched openings, pointed windows, decorative brickwork, steep gables, and a large sanctuary window facing the street. Its architecture reflected the confidence and aspiration of a congregation that had become firmly established in downtown Greensburg.

Postcard of the Third Church Building

A Landmark of Gothic Revival Architecture

View from the corner of Main St. and 3rd St.

Side Entrance to the Sanctuary along Main St.

3rd Street Entrance, the original entrance doors are still operated with a black smithed Church Key

Chancel Area, Choir/Organ loft, partial screen and Organ Galleries with the Passion Stained Glass window

The present church building is First Presbyterian’s fourth principal church home and one of Greensburg’s significant architectural landmarks. Located at South Main and East Third Streets, the sanctuary was designed by Ralph Adams Cram of the Boston firm Cram & Ferguson, one of the leading Gothic Revival architects in the United States. Cram’s church designs were shaped by the conviction that architecture should do more than provide shelter. It should form worship, lift the imagination, and draw the eye and heart toward God.

The current building under construction ca. 1917-1919

Plans for the new church followed the congregation’s long nineteenth-century presence on Main Street. Ground was broken in 1916, and construction began in 1917 as the United States entered World War I. While the new church was being built, the congregation worshiped in the Westmoreland County Courthouse, a fitting reminder of First Presbyterian’s close relationship with the civic life of Greensburg.

Building completed ca. 1919

The building was completed in June 1918, but its formal dedication was delayed until October 1919 because of the war and the congregation’s deep involvement in national service. Ninety-eight members of the congregation served with the American Expeditionary Forces, the pastor served as an Army chaplain in France, and five members of the congregation died in the war. The dedication of the new sanctuary therefore took place not only as a celebration of a completed building, but also as an act of remembrance, gratitude, and hope.
Architecturally, the church reflects a modified English Gothic style. Its granite exterior, strong tower, pointed arches, carved details, stained glass, and warm interior woodwork create a space of strength, reverence, and beauty. SAH Archipedia describes the building as a Massachusetts seam-faced granite church with a gracefully proportioned square tower and slender hexagonal towers near the West Third Street entrance. Inside, rough-plastered walls, fumed oak woodwork in the church, chestnut woodwork in the chapel, and a dramatic Gothic arch in the chancel give the sanctuary both dignity and intimacy.

The present church building at the (then recently) signalized intersection of South Main Street and East Third Street

The result is a sacred space built for the full life of Presbyterian worship: preaching, prayer, sacrament, music, silence, and congregational song. The sanctuary feels monumental without being distant, beautiful without being ornamental for its own sake, and historic without being frozen in the past.
The significance of the building has been recognized beyond the congregation. First Presbyterian Church has been identified as an important work of Cram & Ferguson, included in architectural surveys of Pennsylvania, and honored by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation with a Historic Landmark plaque. Yet for the people of First Presbyterian, its deepest meaning is not only architectural. It is the place where generations have gathered to worship God, hear the Word proclaimed, sing the faith, remember those who came before, and carry the church’s mission into the future.

Postcard of First Presbyterian Church of Greensburg

Stained Glass, Sacred Art, and Memorial Windows

 (​The sanctuary’s stained glass tells another part of the church’s story. The original windows were made of green glass, but over the decades many were replaced with stained glass windows that now fill the sanctuary with color, memory, and theological meaning.
The windows include work associated with nationally significant stained glass artists and studios, including Charles J. Connick of Boston and Nicola D’Ascenzo of Philadelphia. These windows do more than decorate the space. They interpret the Christian story, honor those who served, and invite worshipers to encounter scripture and memory through light.
Among the notable windows are the Passion Window above the organ, the Nativity Window, and the War Memorial Window. Together, the stained glass creates a visual theology for the congregation: birth, suffering, sacrifice, service, resurrection hope, and the enduring light of Christ. 
​See more about FPC's stained glass here.​

War, Service, and Dedication

The dedication of the present sanctuary was shaped by World War I. While the building was under construction, many members of the congregation served overseas, and the pastor served as an Army chaplain in France. The dedication was postponed until after the war, a decision that reflected the congregation’s desire to honor the realities of sacrifice, absence, and grief.
The War Memorial Window stands as a lasting witness to this chapter of the church’s life. It reminds every generation that worship is never separated from the world’s suffering, and that faith communities are called to remember those who served, those who died, and those who carried the burdens of war home with them. ​(pictured below is the War Memorial Window - Coulter Family - dedicated 1921)

In 1991, First Presbyterian Church became the gathering place for one of the most painful public moments in Greensburg’s modern history. On February 25, 1991, an Iraqi Al Hussein missile struck the barracks housing members of the 14th Quartermaster Detachment, a United States Army Reserve water purification unit based in Greensburg, while the unit was stationed in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Thirteen members of the detachment were killed and forty-three were wounded; across the full attack, twenty-eight American soldiers died and ninety-nine were wounded.
On March 2, 1991, the community gathered at First Presbyterian Church for a memorial service. Contemporary news coverage reported that the church was filled, with mourners also gathered in adjoining areas and around the sanctuary. Local clergy, civic leaders, state officials, and military representatives joined the community in honoring the fallen members of the 14th Quartermaster Detachment. The service drew national attention as Greensburg became a symbol of how a distant war had reached deeply into one Pennsylvania community.
Church memory also preserves a striking musical connection to that day. According to Ed Highberger’s written account, Senator John Heinz was moved by Frank Bridge’s Adagio in E Major during the Desert Storm memorial service and noted the piece on his bulletin. After Senator John Heinz’s death in an airplane crash only weeks later, Highberger contacted Douglas Major, then associated with Washington National Cathedral, to share the title of the organ work Heinz had loved. Public accounts record that Heinz’s funeral was held at Heinz Chapel in Pittsburgh and that a later service of thanksgiving was held at Washington National Cathedral.
The Desert Storm memorial service remains an important part of First Presbyterian’s history. On that day, the sanctuary served not only the congregation, but the wider Greensburg community. It became a place of mourning, remembrance, prayer, and shared strength, holding the grief of a community whose loss had reached far beyond the walls of the church.

Music, Organ, and Choral Tradition

Music has long been central to the identity of First Presbyterian Church. The sanctuary was built for the spoken and sung Word, and generations of organists, choir members, instrumentalists, and congregational singers have shaped the sound of worship in this space.
The church’s organ history reflects that commitment. The present organ tradition includes an Austin pipe organ, later additions and expansions, and continuing care for the instrument as a central voice in worship and concert life. Over the years, the church has also been a gathering place for organ recitals, choral music, instrumental music, and community musical events.
One of the most significant figures in this musical legacy was Edgar Highberger, who began serving as organist and minister of music in the 1965 and whose long ministry (52 years) helped shape the church’s worship life for generations. That tradition continues today through congregational song, choirs, handbells, instrumental ensembles, children’s music, and the church’s ongoing commitment to music as worship, education, and community building. See more about the Music Ministry History here.

Notable Moments in the Life of the Church

Because First Presbyterian Church has stood in the center of Greensburg for generations, it has also been part of many personal and public stories. One notable moment came in 1956, when H. Ross Perot married Margot Birmingham at First Presbyterian Church in Margot’s hometown of Greensburg. Their wedding is one small example of the many baptisms, confirmations, weddings, funerals, concerts, civic gatherings, and acts of worship that have taken place here.
Read more about their life and the life of Ross H. Perot here.
These moments matter because they remind us that church history is not only made by buildings, pastors, musicians, or public events. It is made by the people who gather, pray, sing, grieve, rejoice, serve, and pass faith from one generation to the next.

Faith in Action: Mission, Education, and Community Life

​First Presbyterian Church has never been only a building. Across generations, the congregation has lived out its faith through worship, education, hospitality, and service.
Today, the church continues to gather for Sunday worship in the sanctuary and through online simulcast. Its ministries include Christian education, fellowship, children’s formation, music ministry, preschool education, and mission outreach. The church’s Second Sunday Supper ministry has served meals to neighbors for more than two decades, embodying the Presbyterian conviction that faith is lived through service, compassion, and community care.
The church’s preschool continues another important part of the congregation’s vocation: forming young lives through learning, play, creativity, and care. In these ministries, the congregation’s history is not merely remembered. It is practiced.

The Story Continues

The history of First Presbyterian Church of Greensburg is a story of rootedness and renewal. From its beginnings at St. Clair Park to its present home on South Main Street, from its early Presbyterian worship to its landmark Gothic sanctuary, from its stained glass and organ music to its mission meals and children’s ministries, the church has continued to seek God’s call in each generation.
We are rooted in the faith that has sustained this congregation since 1788: faith expressed in worship, service, music, learning, beauty, and care for our neighbors. And we remain committed to excellence, not as perfection, but as a faithful offering of our best gifts to God and to the community we are called to serve.
​
Rooted in Faith. Committed to Excellence.