Providence Presbyterian Church

The first meetinghouse of the Providence Presbyterian congregation was a simple log structure erected in 1767 to the east of the cemetery. However, a grave marker dated 1764 in the church’s cemetery suggests that Presbyterian Scotch-Irish settlers likely worshipped at the location even earlier. Reverend William Richardson (1729-1771), pastor of the Waxhaws Presbyterian Church and son-in-law of Alexander Craighead, preached the first sermon in the edifice as the first minister of Providence. Members of the congregation played an important part in local affairs during the turbulent years of the American Revolution. Three signers of what according to some was the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence are buried in the Providence Cemetery: Neill Morrison, John Flennekin, and Henry Downs. In September 1780, during their advance on the Charlotte settlement, British General Cornwallis and his troops proceeded through the area, plundering food and supplies from the congregants that resided near the church. During his twenty-seven-year ministry (1792-1819) at Providence Presbyterian, Reverend James Wallis (1762-1819) served the congregation both as its pastor and as the primary instructor of a classical school sponsored by the church.  

In 1804, a new and larger building was erected to the east of Providence Road and in front of the cemetery. The first old log structure became a schoolhouse. Two of Providence Presbyterian’s early ministers – Dr. Robert Hall Morrison (1798-1889) and Dr. Samuel Williamson (1795-1882) – later became the first two presidents of Davidson College. The present sanctuary dates from 1858, during the pastorate of Reverend Jethro Rumple (1827-1906), widely recognized as one of North Carolina’s most distinguished clergymen of the nineteenth century. The refinement of the structure, especially of the interior, confirms that those were prosperous times for the Providence Presbyterian congregation, due in no small part to the benefits of the South’s cotton economy. Despite the addition of more modern structures to the church campus, the extant 1858 sanctuary building remains as a symbol of the affluence of that era.