Religious services began in a building known as the "Barbadoes Warehouse", located on the northwest corner of Second and Chestnut Streets.

Andrews was stripped by the presbytery of his ability to serve in the ministry because of illicit acts committed with a married woman.

Twenty-seven years later it was abandoned, due to unsafe conditions and the encroachment of the surrounding business district.

The architect Henry Augustus Sims designed the present building at 21st and Walnut Streets and attended the dedication in October 1872.

[15][16][17] During the early years of the AIDS global pandemic, First Church along with seven church members: Walla Dempsey, Mary Gainer, Kathryn “Kay” Keenze, Robert “Bob” Prischak, Reid Reames, Dixie Scoles, and Kenwyn Smith, founded MANNA in 1990 to feed sick neighbors within the city limits dying from AIDS and to provide support to those most in need of nourishment.

MANNA has grown into an independent organization currently housed in the Spring Garden historic district.

MANNA continues to fulfill the nourishment needs of neighbors with many health ailments guided by the mantra, based in nutrition research, "Food Is Medicine".

[18][19][20][21] Lyric Fest with the mission to bring people together through the shared experience of song and story was founded and hosted during its formative years at First Church in 2003 by three Philadelphia-area musicians, Suzanne DuPlantis, mezzo-soprano; Laura Ward, pianist; and Randi Marrazzo, soprano.

The two stone carvers he recommended to the Church Building Committee were recent immigrants to America.

They had come with letters of introduction and their first collaboration involved finishing the carvings in a small church in Delaware which Sims admired.

Alexander Milne Calder and John William Kitson spent nearly two years completing the interior, the exterior follies and the two elaborate doorway carvings.

Kitson's work at Second Church established his reputation as an artist known for interior stonework and especially bird carving.

Families that opted to have their ancestors reinterred in a vault at Laurel Hill Cemetery were not allowed to bring the headstones with them; these were propped up against the walls down at "Old Pine."

The materials at the historical society include session minutes, correspondence, baptism and marriage records, pew rentals, cemetery information, cash books, as well as other items related to the history and business of the church.