First Presbyterian Church of Aiken

Front: This church, founded in 1858 with 14 charter members and W. Peronneau Finley and John D. Legare as elders, first met in the Aiken Town Hall on Laurens St. Its first permanent sanctuary, a frame building designed by Charleston architect Edward Brickell White, was completed and dedicated in 1859. It stood at the corner of Laurens Street and Railroad (now Park) Avenue until it was demolished in 1924. Reverse: The second sanctuary, a Classical Revival brick building, was designed by Aiken architect Willis Irvin and served the congregation until 1969. The church membership tripled during the Aiken population boom of the the 1950s and was renamed First Presbyterian Church of Aiken in 1959. The present sanctuary, designed by the firm of Hallman and Weems, was built here in 1968-69 and dedicated in 1969.