First Presbyterian Church of Delaware was organized in 1810 by Joseph S. Hughs, a Presbyterian licentiate from Pennsylvania. Our church started with only fourteen members! In 1815, the congregation began using worship facilities provided by the county in their new courthouse. It was there 19th United States President Rutherford B. Hayes was baptized as an infant. President John Quincy Adams attended church services there as well. Hughs died during the epidemic of 1823 after having served 13 years, and was succeeded by another Pennsylvanian, Henry Van Deman, a full-fledged Presbyterian minister.
In 1825, a small stone church was constructed at the present site on W Winter Street. In 1841, after a history of problems on both the national and local level, fifty-four members left to organize an officially-recognized Second Presbyterian Church of Delaware.
In 1843, a new brick structure replaced the old small stone church. Van Deman’s eventful 34 year Delaware pastorate ended in 1859. Eleven years later, in 1870, the dissident group was happily reunited with this, the parent church, and a new era of the Presbyterian church in Delaware began.
Today, our more than 200-year-old congregation continues to play a highly visible and influential role in Delaware’s religious, educational, and community life.
