Frankford church awaits
event worth celebrating

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

Since six years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a church stood at Frankford Avenue and Church Street, the current site of the pink church building, the Presbyterian Church of Frankford.
For the first 22 years of its existence, the church was a German-speaking Calvanist church — an extension of the German Reformed Church in Germantown.
“In the cemetery behind the church the gravestones are so old and so weather-beaten that they are nearly illegible to the eye, but in that graveyard are buried four of the church founders and seven soldiers of the American Revolution,” wrote the current pastor, the Rev. Dr. John Sweet in his A Historical Portrait of the Presbyterian Church of Frankford.
Prominent members of the early church have recognizable names including those of the Castor, Buckius and Womrath families.
The church was the 17th built in what is now considered the city of Philadelphia. Prior to the 1854 Act of consolidation of townships, the area was known as the village of Frankford in Oxford Township.
During the Revolutionary War, the German-speaking church served as a prison for Hessian soldiers, captured by Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army in the Battle of Trenton.
By 1802, however, Sweet notes that the children of the German immigrants wanted to worship in English.
That year, according to Howard Barnes’ History of Frankford, the Rev. Frederick Hermann left the congregation. His successor, the Rev. John Runkle, then preached every fourth Sunday in German.
In 1805, the Orthodox Germans moved to the southeast side of Church Street, near what is now Leiper Street. There, Heinrich Becker had given them an acre of land and Joseph Mellor gave them the building on the condition that the preaching be done in German. Failure to do so would result in the loss of the property, according to Barnes.
In 1807, the Presbytery of Philadelphia agreed to receive the English-speaking Frankford church as a member.
On April 9, 1808, the governor of Pennsylvania issued a new constitution for the Presbyterian Church of Frankford.
The church will hold its 200th anniversary celebration of its transfer to the Presbyterian Church on Sunday, May 4, with a luncheon at noon and celebration services at 2 p.m.
Education was high on the priority list for church officials. The same year as its rebirth, at a time when there were no public schools, the church founded one called the Frankford Academy.
The church was also instrumental in the forming of eight other Presbyterian churches, six of which are still in existence, according to Sweet. They are Bridesburg, Holmesburg, Disston, Wissinoming, Olney and Glading.
The Frankford Presbyterian parsonage or manse was built in 1844 and the cornerstone for the current building was laid on June 8, 1859. Its architect was John McArthur Jr., who also designed Philadelphia’s City Hall.
In 1898, the church was renovated with a paneled ceiling and memorial stained-glass windows, honoring its former trustees and bearing the names of the Castor, Buckius and Womrath families. The pews are cushioned with red velvet.
The church’s peak membership was 1,034 in 1930. Today it numbers 30.
The cost of upkeep for a church almost 150 years old can be steep for a small congregation. However, according to Sweet, the current supply pastor (supply means continuing but not permanent), the Rev. Dr. John Laird was very wise. Laird, who served on the board that founded Frankford Hospital, had the foresight back in 1910 to set up an endowment fund.
“We have wonderful trustees enabling the church to have a full-time ministry and a part-time pastor,” Sweet said.
While the windows that flank the church are of symbols, the Good Shepherd is beautifully rendered in stained glass in the church’s choir loft. When lighted it is visible from the Frankford El.
During a recent tour of the church, elder Chuck Henry told a story about a man who had had a bit too much to drink who wandered up the driveway between the church and the parsonage and asked the pastor why the Lord wasn’t lighted.
“I like to see the Lord lit up. Then I know I’m almost home,” the man said.
The Presbyterian Church of Frankford holds Sunday School at 10 a.m. on Sundays. Worship services are held at 11 a.m. The public is welcome. ••
Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com