The church’s founding pastor, Reverend Dr. Patrick Allison, a friend of George Washington and chaplain to the Continental Congress, was instrumental to the effort to produce the earliest printings of the Bible in America. First and Franklin’s historic New Brunswick brownstone church, designed by architect Norris G. Starkweather and built between 1854-1859, is recognized as one of Maryland’s most impressive examples of Gothic Revival architecture. The innovative use of structural cast iron permitted the 1873-1875 addition of the slender and iconic 273-foot-tall pinnacle spire – still the tallest in Baltimore – to rise high above the surrounding buildings.

Through the decades, First and Franklin’s outreach has included a school for the deaf, an orphanage, a Living Classrooms community, and a refuge for the LGBTQ+ community. It has been an avid supporter of the performing and visual arts since Noah Webster established a singing school at the First Presbyterian Church in July of 1785. This program has been the foundation of several additional arts programs, the Spire Series (concerts) and Art Under the Spire (visual art). The sanctuary also serves as a performance and rehearsal space for students from the Baltimore School for the Arts and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, Conservatory of Music and Dance.

A National Fund grant of $480,381 with $480,381 in matching funds raised by the congregation will support masonry rehabilitation for the church’s brownstone façade.

Photo by James Oliver