First Presbyterian's $35 million project aims to transform a downtown Greenville block

For more than a century, First Presbyterian has served as one of a handful of Greenville's legacy churches, helping mold the faith culture downtown.

In the 1980s, when downtown's fortunes were bleak, the church made a decision to stay at its prominent location on the corner block of Academy and West Washington streets.

Now, not only the church, but the block, is poised to transform.

First Presbyterian is embarking on a vision to build a worship and performing arts center as part of a larger expansion of its church. 

The price tag: $35 million.

The project is being billed as more than an internal expansion and broadened to represent downtown Greenville's overall growth, said the Rev. Richard Gibbons, the church's senior pastor.

Membership and participation has increased steadily since downtown's Renaissance, with more people living close by and walking to church, he said.

"Greenville is exploding," Gibbons said. "As a congregation, we're seeing the ripple effect."

The church was founded in 1848. Its current structure dates back to 1883 and has undergone numerous expansions over the past century.

In the early 1980s, even as downtown languished, the congregation grew to the point that only 800 of its 2,900 members could be seated in the sanctuary for each of its two services. The remaining were seated in an annex.

The church had to make a decision on whether to stay or go, Gibbons said. In 1986, the  decision was made to stay, and the church has performed multiple renovations over the years to accommodate services and programs.

The newest expansion is billed as a project that will "transform the heart of the city."

The plans include a new, grand entrance into the church oriented toward the Academy and West Washington corner. Currently, the church can't quite tell visitors exactly where the front of the church is, said Marcie Lemley, the church's communications director.

The entrance, which will have a steeple to complement the current steeple to the east, will replace the windowless building that now serves as one of many backsides of the church.

The corner is only part of the frontage along Academy Street that First Pres owns.

Over the years, the church has held on to more than five acres on either side of Academy and West Washington. The church practically owns most of two blocks, though now the additional land is mostly parking lots.

Across West Washington, the church owns most of the block where the Greenville Summit housing tower sits.

There, Gibbons said, the church will maintain parking for the time being, but later could decide to develop the two acres into retail and housing.

On the other side of Academy, the church owns about 1.5 acres of frontage between the West Washington and Buncombe Street block.

The ultimate use of that land is "to be determined," Gibbons said.

The church's plan is to continue its capital campaign into April in hopes of raising $20 million initially, Gibbons said. Construction would begin next year and be completed in 2021.

The church recently announced a merger with Shannon Forest Christian School to consolidate education programs under the banner of First Presbyterian Academy. The downtown campus will continue to house the longstanding preschool programs, with older grades on the Shannon Forest site on Garlington Road.

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