Independent Presbyterian Church
Two decades after James Edward Oglethorpe landed in Savannah, bringing with him Scotsmen among the passengers of the Anne, the Presbyterian Church of Savannah was founded. The year was 1755. The congregation has met regularly in Savannah for more than 265 years and today considers themselves the “mother church of Georgia Presbyterians.”
While the church has existed in three locations, and undergone one name change in its history (to Independent Presbyterian), the congregation has always been orthodox to the teachings of John Calvin.
Originally, the congregation’s first building was a brick structure located on Market Square (present day Ellis Square). The property for the first church building was granted by King George II, who decreed…..“to the intent and purpose that a place of public worship be there upon erected and built for the use and benefit of such of our loving subjects . . . as are and shall be professors of the Doctrines of the Church of Scotland, agreeable to the Westminster Confession of Faith.”
This location would serve the congregation for 35 years, before being destroyed by a fire in 1790. The British would make use of it after they captured the city during the Battle of Savannah during the Revolutionary War.
A decade after fire destroyed the Presbyterian Church of Savannah in 1790, a new structure was built — this time on St. James Square (present day Telfair Square). The joy of having a new site to worship only lasted a few years until a hurricane struck, causing severe damage.
By 1819, a third church had been constructed. It was dedicated on Sunday, May 9, 1819 and in attendance were President James Monroe and several members of his cabinet. At the time of its construction, the church was considered one of the most beautiful in all of the United States. Around this time, Lowell Mason was serving as choir leader for the church. He would go on to become organist for the church. Later he would become a prolific composer and become a proponent of music education in schools. Today, history remembers him as the Father of American Church Music, as does Savannah which erected a historical marker in his honor near the church.
History has been kind to the present location of Independent Presbyterian Church. Total destruction was a real possibility as General Sherman marched from Atlanta to the Sea during the Civil War, however Savannah surrendered in advance and the downtown business district escaped burning, unlike Atlanta.
A future president, Woodrow Wilson, was married to Ellen Louise Axson in the rectory of the church in 1885. A few years later, a fire destroyed most of the church’s main building. Some items were able to be salvaged, including the marble baptismal font.
Rather than make changes, the pastor and church leaders were determined to rebuild the church “exactly as it had been.” The noted architect, William Preston Gibbons, was employed to oversee rebuilding.
After it was returned to its former glory, Harper’s Magazine wrote, in 1919, “In architecture the primacy must be yielded above every other edifice in Savannah to the famous Independent Presbyterian Church.”
Now, more than a century later, Independent Presbyterian Church continues to preach the Gospel of Christ while also attracting its share of tourists visiting Savannah interested in the historical aspects of the church building and centuries of worship attributed to the congregation.
