Historic Ocean City Churches: First Presbyterian

Palm Sunday, Holy Week and the Easter season, is an appropriate time to begin a series of posts and photos on some of Ocean City's historic churches.

We'll start with the First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City, because the church is celebrating it's 100th anniversary on Saturday, Apr. 4. The Presbyterian community in Ocean City dates to 1892, when a Sunday school was organized. Around the turn of the century, a chapel was built at the corner of North Division Street and Baltimore Avenue. It was the Ocean City Mission Chapel, under the direction of the Buckingham Presbyterian Church in Berlin.

The First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City was officially organized 100 years ago, in 1909, and the congregation continued to hold services at the small downtown church for many years. Eventually, the congregation needed more space for parking. In 1955, a site for a new church was purchased at 13th Street and Philadelphia Ave., which was in the sand dunes north of Ocean City at the time.

The big modern Presbyterian Church was opened at 13th Street in 1963, and the congregation, both year-round residents and summer visitors, has been worshiping at that location ever since. The church's Web site is http://ocpresbyterian.org/index.php?id=home