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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH F 125 South Third Street
Top: First Presbyterian Chapel seen from the southwest. Clockwise from
above, left: The Great West Window of First Presbyterian Church depicts
the “Triumphant Christ” or the vision of Jesus from Revelation walking
among the 12 tribes of Israel in the new Jerusalem. The church’s front
entry perforates the granite stone facade. Detail of one of the many
stylized fleur de lies spires. A hawk sits atop the rooster that crowns the
First Presbyterian Church steeple. One of three First Presbyterian Rose
Windows, influenced by Rose Windows found at Chartres Cathedral, is a
symbol of everlasting divinity and God.
First Presbyterian’s architect, Hobart Upjohn, descended
from a long line of prominent architects. His grandfather
designed Trinity Church in New York City, and his father
designed Connecticut’s state capitol building.
Upjohn liked to mix and match his architectural styles.
At First Presbyterian he incorporated Gothic Revival,
Norman Romanesque and Tudor designs. Some elements
of its architectural design are reminiscent of the Durham
Cathedral in England.
The steeple of First Presbyterian Church is inspired by
Gothic Revival architecture. Norman Romanesque elements,
thick stone walls and circular arches, are featured in the
architecture of the chapel. Tudor Elizabethan details, the
distinctive half-timbering on the Dock Street façade, also
inspire the shaping of the chapel’s window frames.
The first three incarnations of First Presbyterian Church, the
first built in 1818, were consumed by fire. The present church
was finished in 1928.
The earliest documented meetings of the congregation were
in 1760, states University of North Carolina Wilmington his-tory
professor Walter Conser.
John Myers, former art history professor at the University of
North Carolina Wilmington, once wrote that Hobart Upjohn’s
architectural design provides “the worshipper not only with a
splendid place for worship and spiritual community, but also
with a wonderful illustrated guide to architectural history.”
Upjohn’s European influences also hold the key to an enig-matic
symbol capping First Presbyterian’s spire — a rooster.
First Presbyterian’s senior pastor, the Rev. Ernie Thompson,
says Upjohn added the rooster to the top of the church’s steeple
to reflect ones he saw on steeples throughout Europe and as a
symbol of Christ’s resurrection overcoming doubt. The biblical
reference to the rooster appears in Matthew 26:34 where Jesus
predicts Peter’s denial: “Truly I say to you that this very night,
before a rooster crows, you will deny me three times.”
First Presbyterian’s tall, peaked cathedral style windows made
by famed Pennsylvania stained glass artist Henry Lee Willet are
some of the most detailed storytelling panes in Wilmington.
In the “Dignity” window near the pulpit, he included the
signing of the Constitution, the scales of justice and Abraham
Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation. The Lincoln
Memorial appears in the background because the monument’s
architect, Henry Bacon, grew up attending First Presbyterian.
Another famous son of the church was the nation’s 28th
president, Woodrow Wilson. His father was a pastor there for
11 years.
The church’s newest artistic feature is in its belfry. Replacing
an electric carillon, four new brass bells, each cast in France
were installed in February, 2012, and hoisted up by giant cranes
through the center of the tower. Former music director Doug
Leightenheimer says the men installing the bells scaled the tower
from the inside clinging to nothing but twisted iron rebar ladders.
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