Nine years ago, when Connie Grisier moved to Clinton, she joined the First Presbyterian Church and was given a tour of the church building by Jim Tillman, one of the church’s 12 elders.
Since then, she’s wondered how many people drive by the red brick church on the corner of 3rd and Franklin and wonder what it looks like inside.
“It’s unique inside and out,” Grisier said. “The sanctuary has a coffered ceiling, the original light fixtures and galleries.”
The date on the cornerstone of the building is 1924. To mark the 100th anniversary of the building, the Presbyterian congregation is holding a special church service at 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 8, followed by a fried chicken dinner in the fellowship hall.
Grisier has been collecting records of church history, and compiling an exhibit for the Sept. 8 Anniversary Sunday, Pastor Nancy Gillard said. Gillard extended a special invitation to people who had been part of the congregation in past decades to attend the anniversary service and lunch, which will be a homecoming for the church family.
The message that Sunday will be “Faithfully Facing the Future,” with the scripture reading from Ephesians Chapter 6, verse 14: “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place.” The first half of Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, one of the four largest cities in the Roman Empire, was a reminder to the church of all that God had done for them.
Grisier said she is drawn to old buildings, and would like to know more about the church building. What she does know: it was built on the plans of the Christian Church in Harrisonville, Mo., also a Greek Revival building.
She was told the interior of the sanctuary is what is called “courtroom” style, with the choir area where the jury box would be, and spectator galleries around the back of the upper floor.
According to church records, the date on the church cornerstone, 1924, is the year nine members of a building finance committee met with Pastor Monroe Falls at the manse. In the minutes recorded by Inez McKee, the committee voted to raise $25,00 to build the church, and the church roll was brought out and divided into lists of 10 members to be given to the committee members to canvas the church membership for 5-year subscriptions.
A letter was read from Elder H.P. Faris, pledging $5,000 if the $25,000 was raised within 90 days, and $6,000 if $24,000 was raised and the old church building given for use by the Youth Church. The church sanctuary was completed for $30,000 and opened Feb. 27, 1926.
Records show that a Presbyterian congregation in Clinton dates back to 1858. The church occupied buildings on North Third under various doctrinal shingles, including Old School (as opposed to New School), Cumberland Presbyterian and the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A.
The First Presbyterian Church of Clinton was organized at the end of the Civil War. The congregation met for the first three years in the county courthouse.
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which had spun off in the early 1800s after a revival in Tennessee, reunited with the Presbyterian Church/USA in 1907. The combined congregations worshipped in a frame building on the corner of 3rd and Franklin. The building was abandoned in 1913 after a fire spread on a windy day from a trash pile to a neighboring coal house, then to the church roof. The water used to put out the fire caused more damage than the fire, loosening the plaster in the ceiling of the sanctuary.
One Sunday in the middle of morning prayer, a piece of the ceiling fell on ‘Old Dr. Nichols,’ as he was standing to pray. As the members of the congregation held their breath, the pastor, Dr. Fetterolf, was reported to have looked around, and when no other pieces fell, finished the prayer ‘in a spirit of thanksgiving,’ assumedly that the whole ceiling didn’t fall in.
By Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1918, the damaged frame building had been abandoned and sold to wreckers. The church bell lay in the middle of the wreckage. Clintonians who took the streets to celebrate the end of the Great War carried the bell off to the town square—nobody quite knows how —where everyone who passed by struck the bell, which rang all day.
he city of Clinton purchased the bell on behalf of the American Legion Post. Known as the Armistice Bell, it is now in front of the American Legion Hall in Artesian Park.
While many old churches near the Square relocated and rebuilt in the 1950s, First Presbyterian was large enough to serve through years of growth and consolidation. The 1924 sanctuary was built in the Greek Revival neo-classical style popular for government buildings, banks and libraries since before the Civil War. The style is characterized by a triangular pediment across the front of the building, forming a portico with fluted columns.
The church also expanded in place, buying lots adjacent to the sanctuary. In 1981, the parking lot on the south side of the Presbyterian church was created. That year, the congregation held a Jubilee service, recognizing people who had been members of the congregation for 50 years.
In 1993, a building campaign raised $500,000 to add the fellowship hall, kitchen and an elevator, which makes the sanctuary accessible from the south entry doors from the parking lot. A Heritage Sunday service on Sept. 17, 2006, recognized 50-year members.
One of the earliest Protestant denominations, the Presbyterian Church is a Reformed Calvinist church named for its form of church government by elders, or presbyters. A mixture of Puritans, Scots-Irish, Welsh and other immigrants, it was associated with the Congregational church, with each congregation a representative democracy.
For more information about First Presbyterian Church of Clinton’s centennial celebration, go to its website, fpcclintonmo.net, or the church Facebook.
