History of First Presbyterian Church
Hendersonville, North Carolina
First Presbyterian Church had its beginnings in Albert Fuller’s parlor on November 20, 1852, with eleven charter members, who had been driving their buggies over to the Mills River Presbyterian Church for worship, but decided that they needed to have their own church closer to home. The first building was erected in 1859 at a cost of $2000. The first report to presbytery showed the church having one elder, two deacons, with twenty-five enrolled in Sunday School, and thirty-one communicants.
We outgrew that first little church building and erected another in 1905. We outgrew that one as well, and built our third and present sanctuary, with seating for 650 in 1958. In 1968 the Chapel and Education Building were completed. Since then we have had two major renovations of our sanctuary, the most recent one completed in November 2004, and also, somewhat earlier, a renovation of our Education Wing, offices, and Fellowship Hall.
First Presbyterian Church was in its early years a member of Mecklenberg Presbytery, and then in 1896 became a member of the newly organized Asheville presbytery in the old southern Presbyterian denomination. Some years after the reunion of the northern and southern churches into the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., the church became a member of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina, which combined several previous presbyteries.
In the 1960’s a group of First Church members with our support and blessing formed what was then a new mission church, which became Trinity PCUSA Church. Their session still meets around our old communion table, and through the years, we have held numerous joint worship services, such as Maundy Thursday evening and Thanksgiving Eve services.
During the period of the combining of the northern and southern churches into the PCUSA some 350 members saw fit to withdraw from First Church and create Covenant PCA Presbyterian Church here in town. First Church was left with 375 members on her rolls, but only about 100 active members and one of her elders. Three months later Rev. Robert Henderson was called as our pastor, and under his leadership our congregation experienced tremendous growth in every way. Two years later, there was an official “mortgage burning” for the remaining $228,000 debt.
In the next couple of years after the mortgage burning the congregation contributed $37,500 to build a nursing school facility in Bulape, Zaire. Also during the 1980’s, we were one of the five founding congregations who created Interfaith Assistance Ministries to offer numerous types of assistance to those in need in our community. Also during that period a member team visited Nicaragua for three weeks to build houses with Habitat for Humanity. In 1996 we contributed more than $50,000 to help in the building of Contemporary First Baptist Church of Hendersonville, and another $50,000 to purchase the land for a new dormitory building for Hendersonville Rescue Mission.
In the more recent years, both our youth and older members have taken numerous mission trips to visit our partnership churches in Mexico and Guatemala. In Guatemala we have contributed the money for our partner church to build their own mission church in a nearby, but hard to reach village. We also supported and built in partnership with Trinity Church a Habitat house here in Hendersonville as a part of First Church’s Sesquicentennial celebration in 2002. Our session currently sets aside 20% of our budget for benevolences, both here in Hendersonville, and around the world, and our congregation members stay very involved with those who receive our financial support.
Our facilities have through the years been filled during the week by numerous charities and agencies. Henderson County Child Development Center operated in our building. Four Seasons Hospice had its beginnings with offices in our building. Through the years, many community organizations have regularly held meetings here including Alcoholics Anonymous, the Alzheimer’s Support Group, Blue Ridge Literacy Program, Trend Mental Health, Parents’ Assistance Ministry, the Red Cross Bloodmobile, and many others. Over the last two years we have been hosting an Hispanic Pentecostal congregation which uses our Chapel on Sunday mornings after our 8:30 service there. We also have a long-running Creative Beginnings Christian preschool program for 1-4 year olds five mornings a week. Our buildings are never left dull and quiet during the workweek.
Our congregation’s goal set by our session in the late 1980’s sounded rather impossible to meet at the time. The slogan for that dream was, “2000 by 2000 by 2”. It referred to 2000 members and 2 churches by the year 2000. In 1998 our pastor and some 95 members decided to leave and start Reformation ARP Presbyterian Church here in Hendersonville. We must admit that our congregation has not always multiplied and evangelized in what some would consider the usual ways, but Hendersonville currently has four Presbyterian churches, in three different Presbyterian denominations, and one Hispanic Pentecostal congregation with approximately 2000 members between them, which have sprung from our roots. And that doesn’t include the new Presbyterian church we helped to build in Guatemala. Inn many ways through the years, we believe we have fulfilled our mission statement title, “Blessed to Be a Blessing.”
Our own current membership numbers are nearly 550, which still leaves some extra seats in our newly renovated 650-seat sanctuary at our 10:55 worship, or, if one prefers, our more intimate 8:30 service is in the Chapel, or stop in and try us out at our more informal time for a catered dinner on Wednesday night, and stay afterwards for the Table Talk teaching time and children’s programs.
