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Old Stone Church (Cleveland, Ohio)
Encyclopedia
Presbyterian Church (USA)
The Presbyterian Church , or PC, is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. Part of the Reformed tradition, it is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S...
church located in downtown
Downtown Cleveland
Downtown Cleveland is the central business district of the City of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Reinvestment in the area in the mid-1990s spurred a rebirth that continues to this day, with over $2 billion in residential and commercial developments slated for the area over the next few years...
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, and is the oldest building on Public Square
Public Square
Public Square is the central plaza in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It takes up four city blocks; Superior Avenue and Ontario Street cross through it. Cleveland's three tallest buildings, Key Tower, 200 Public Square and the Terminal Tower, face the square...
. It is also the second church built within the city limits.
History
In June 1819, the Union Sunday SchoolSunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
began meeting on the site of the current church, and on September 19, 1820, fifteen Clevelanders, some ten percent of the then-village's population, signed a charter officially establishing the congregation. It was formally incorporated in 1827 as The First Presbyterian Society, and in 1834 the first church was built out of gray sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
. The interior featured a gallery suspended by iron rods, reportedly a first in a Cleveland public building, as well as the city's first pipe organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
. Because of its building materials, First Presbyterian was called "the Stone Church," and as other stone churches were erected in the area, it became known as the "Old Stone Church."
By 1853, the congregation had outgrown the original building, so the church was razed, and a larger replacement was built on the same spot. The Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...
church, dedicated on August 12, 1855, was also made of local sandstone, and was designed by architects Charles Heard and Simeon Porter.
A series of fires
Nineteen months later, on March 7, 1857, fire struck the church. Water from the hand-pumped fire engines was unable to reach the 250-foot steepleSteeple (architecture)
A steeple, in architecture, is a tall tower on a building, often topped by a spire. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religious structure...
, which came crashing down onto Ontario Street. Despite this, the building remained mostly intact, and reconstruction began almost immediately. The church was rededicated on January 17, 1858.
The second fire occurred on January 5, 1884, spreading to the church from the adjoining Wick Building's Park Theater. Despite the sturdy construction of the building, the interior was gutted. Afterward, the congregation considered a move to E. 55th Street and Euclid Avenue, but it was eventually decided to keep the original location, after pressure from influential members including John Hay
John Hay
John Milton Hay was an American statesman, diplomat, author, journalist, and private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln.-Early life:...
. Architect Charles Schweinfurth was hired to head the reconstruction of the church, which was dedicated on October 19, 1884. Subsequent additions to the church include three Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements...
stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
windows, a John La Farge triple window overlooking Public Square, and a Holtkamp Organ Company
Holtkamp Organ Company
The Holtkamp Organ Company of Cleveland, Ohio is one of America's oldest builders of pipe organs. Founded in 1855 by G.F. Votteler, the company was passed on to the Holtkamps in 1931...
organ.
Present day
The Old Stone Church has stood virtually unchanged to this day, and is the last remaining church designed by the Heard and Porter architectural firm. The only major modification was the 1998 addition of a steeple that replicated the original, part of a $2.4 million renovation project, which also included cleaning the Berea sandstone (which had turned black from air pollution) and conservation of the La Farge window. The Old Stone Church was added to the National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1973.