First Reformed Church
Lancaster, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Congregation of German, Swiss, and French settlers was formed about 1729. Log church here, Lancaster's first, 1736. Stone building, 1753; brick church, 1854. Rev. Philip Otterbein, Rev. William Hendel, Dr. Henry Harbaugh were eminent pastors.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Around 1729 a congregation of German, Swiss, and French settlers gathered in the young town of Lancaster, raising a log church here in 1736—the town's first house of worship. Stone and brick buildings followed as the community grew and prospered. Its pulpit was filled by notable early clergymen, including Rev. Philip Otterbein.
Why it matters
It reflects the deep German and Reformed roots of colonial Pennsylvania, where William Penn's promise of religious tolerance drew waves of Continental European settlers.
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Related people
- · Philip Otterbein
- · William Hendel
- · Henry Harbaugh
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lancaster County
Lancaster, PA · est. 1982
One of Pennsylvania's oldest counties, Lancaster was formed in 1729 and named for Lancashire in England, reflecting the mix of British, German, and other settlers who made it home. The county seat grew into an important inland town and briefly served as the state capital from 1799 to 1812. Its deep, well-watered soils became some of the most productive farmland in America, worked by a patchwork of ethnic and religious communities including the Pennsylvania Germans.
Joseph Simon (1712-1804)
Lancaster, PA · est. 2006
In the mid-1700s, Lancaster sat on the edge of the British colonies' expanding frontier, a bustling inland hub where traders outfitted expeditions toward the Ohio country and beyond. Joseph Simon, a Jewish merchant, built a far-reaching network of trade and land ventures that reached as far as the Mississippi, and when the Revolution came he helped arm the Continental cause. His home doubled as one of the earliest gathering places for Jewish worship west of Philadelphia.
Early Architecture
Lancaster, PA · est. 1950
This modest one-and-a-half-story house, dating from about 1730, represents the everyday architecture of Lancaster's earliest settlers. Plain and practical, such homes were the common dwelling type across the growing town — the marker notes that most local houses were still built in this style as late as 1800. It offers a glimpse of ordinary colonial domestic life, far from the grand Georgian mansions of the wealthy.
Isaac Long Barn
Manheim Township, PA · est. 1960
Around 1767, in the barn of a Lancaster County farmer, a revival brought together two very different preachers of Pennsylvania's German-speaking community: Philip William Otterbein of the German Reformed Church and the Mennonite Martin Boehm. Their meeting is remembered as the seedbed of the United Brethren in Christ, later part of the Evangelical United Brethren Church. It was a distinctly Pennsylvania-Dutch moment, when the region's many immigrant faiths began to cross their own boundaries.