First Presbyterian Church / First Presbyterian Church

This church, Lansing’s first congregation to affiliate nationally (with the Marshall Presbytery), was founded on December 17, 1847. It was organized by the Reverend Calvin Clark, an agent for the American Home Missionary Society. There were four members. The first pastor, the Reverend W. W. Atterbury, served from 1848 until May 1854. The congregation held its early services in a school, the legislative chambers of Lansing’s first capitol, an inn and a storage building called “God’s Barn”. It built its first permanent home, Lansing’s first church edifice, in 1852. The congregation’s first church, at the intersection of Genesee Street and Washington Avenue, housed the first bell in Lansing in its fifty-five-foot tower. The bell was purchased with money raised by church women and was installed in 1856. For years it awakened Lansing, announced noon hour and curfew, and alerted firemen. The congregation’s second church, at the intersection of Capitol Avenue and Allegan Street, was built in 1889. The church on this site, begun in 1947, was completed in 1953. The Molly Grove Chapel was added in 1984.