Who we are

The congregation of First Pres has existed almost 200 years –more than 40 years longer than the city of Westerville.

Early Presbyterian settlers had arrived from New England and Virginia only decades after the birth of our nation. In 1820, they began meeting as Lebanon Church, named after the Virginia community from which many of them had come. By 1829, they opened their first building at the intersection of Dempsey and Hempstead Roads. The first brick church on our current property was finished in 1865 – four days before the end of the Civil War. In 1912-13, it was torn down and replaced with the current building to better meet the needs of a growing congregation. Two additions have been made since then. In the 1950s, classrooms were added. In 2018, a gathering area was added and improvements were made to make our church accessible to everyone.

As one of three “historic Uptown churches” (including Church of the Messiah and Church of the Master), First Pres was highly involved with the Anti-Saloon League. It appointed the first woman elder in the Scioto Valley Presbytery. In the 1960s, it created a counseling service after an Otterbein student claimed his own life. It took a stance against racist real estate redlining and helped integrate the community. And most recently, it became a Matthew 25 congregation, dedicated to environmental stewardship and social justice.