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First Presbyterian Church of Florence


category : Historic Churches
First Presbyterian Church of Florence The First Presbyterian Church of Florence was the second oldest Presbyterian Church in Arizona. Established in November of 1888, the Reverend I.T. Whittemore came from Illinois and preached in a room of the first courthouse. Described by some as a dusty, dirty, unpaved, unimproved isolated typically rough western town, Florence boasted one saloon for every 40 inhabitants by 1888. Reverend Whittemore spent 12 years of service in this neglected vineyard of God, and the church moved from place to place. After occupying the room at the courthouse, the church moved to a building which still stands on the old grammar school grounds known in recent years as a youth center.

In May of 1931, with donated hard labor, a local mule team, locally made brick by George Smith, the present church was completed in Spanish Colonial Revival style, and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The bell that rings today in the historic brick church on Butte Avenue was cast in New York State in 1889, and shipped to Florence by rail and wagon.


Address: 225 E. Butte Avenue

Come visit us in Florence, Arizona

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