First Presbyterian Church

First Presbyterian Church. Meeting House on the Square. Many of the early settlers of Pennsylvania were Scots-Irish who brought with them their Presbyterian faith. By the early 1730's they were settling the Cumberland Valley, including the fertile land near the Conodoguinet Creek. In 1734, Presbyterians in this vicinity began gathering for worship at Meeting House Springs, a few miles west of here. Only the cemetery remains at the original site, and it contains some of the oldest marked graves west of the Susquehanna., this stone meeting house dates from 1757 on the site provided by a deed from Thomas and Richard Penn for "a society of Presbyterians now residing or hereafter to reside in said town and environs thereof forever." The meeting house, designed by architect Robert Smith of Philadelphia, is the oldest public building in Carlisle., The meeting house, 70 by 50 by 30, originally had entrance doors opening onto the lawn. Clear glass windows ranged along the sides. By the mid-1800s, the entrances were moved to the east end facing Hanover Street, and stained glass was installed. A one-story addition was later added on the west end and the tower was build at the reunion of Old and New School Presbyterians. A dedication was held October 18, 1873., The first level of the south wing was built in the early 1950s. A second floor was added in 1987. This original meeting house and the additions continue to serve as the gathering place for a Presbyterian congregation which traces its roots back to Meeting House Springs.