The First Presbyterian Church is the oldest religious congregation in Buffalo. After relocating several times after its inception in 1812—with its primary location at Shelton Square—the church finally had the means to construct a permanent building around the 1880s.
Downtown Buffalo had become commercialized and crowded with poverty-stricken residents, so the trustees decided to move the church to Symphony Circle in 1889. The congregation held their first service in the newly built First Presbyterian Church on December 13, 1891. Upon completion of the 163-foot-tall tower, the church’s congregation formally dedicated the sanctuary on May 6, 1897.
First Presbyterian Church. Image courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York.
First Presbyterian Church. Image courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York.
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