Old Scotch Church | |
Eight-sided steeple of the Old Scotch Church | |
Location | Scotch Church Rd., Washington County, Oregon, near Hillsboro, Oregon |
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Coordinates | 45°34′22″N122°59′39″W / 45.57278°N 122.99417°W Coordinates: 45°34′22″N122°59′39″W / 45.57278°N 122.99417°W |
Built | 1878 |
Architectural style | Carpenter Gothic |
NRHP reference No. | 74001723 [1] |
Added to NRHP | November 5, 1974 |
The Old Scotch Church, also known as the Tualatin Plains Presbyterian Church, is a church and national historic site located in an unincorporated part of Washington County, Oregon, near Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. The church dates to 1873 while the church structure with an eight-sided steeple dates to 1878. A cemetery on the church grounds holds the graves of church members and local pioneer settlers of the Tualatin Plains, including Joseph Meek.
The Tualatin Plains Presbyterian Church was organized in 1873 with the first service on November 16. [2] This first service was held at the four-room Columbia Academy schoolhouse with the Reverend George Ross as pastor, four miles (6 km) northwest of the present site. [2] Services were held at the academy until a permanent site for construction of a house of worship could be located by the congregation. [2]
These first members of the congregation came primarily from the same area in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, which is located west of Aberdeen. [2] In Scotland, they had been members of the Free Church of Scotland. [2] After immigrating to the United States and traveling to Oregon, they settled near each other in the Tualatin Valley. [2] Because of the settlers' Scottish origin, their church building acquired its common name "The Old Scotch Church." [2] The twelve original Scottish pioneers were: Mr. and Mrs. William Chalmers and their 11 children, their youngest Catherine was the first buried there. Mr. and Mrs. James Smith, Rev. and Mrs. George Ross, Mr. and Mrs. George Alexander, their daughter Eliza, Miss Alexander and John Milne. [2] Eight of the twelve founders and many of their descendants are buried in the cemetery surrounding the church. [2] T
In 1876, one acre (4,000 m2) of land was donated to the church by Jacob Hoover to provide a place for a permanent church building and cemetery. [3] On March 11, 1878, the church board began the process of building a permanent building by authorizing an estimate to determine the costs of building a church structure. [2] An estimate of $2120 was completed for a Carpenter Gothic-style building in early 1878. [2] The architect for the structure was Mr. Balantyne. [4] His design included buttresses, stained glass windows, a steep roof, and the signature eight-sided steeple. [2] Construction commenced with much of the material and labor being donated by the congregation. [4] The stained glass windows in the building were imported from Scotland. [4] The church building, adjacent to McKay Creek, was completed in 1878 and dedicated that same year. [2] A church bell was added in 1926 to the steeple. [2]
In 1905, the church was expanded when an annex was built onto the back of the building, adding additional classrooms for Sunday school. [2] Then in 1940 the annex was expanded and a half-basement added, followed by a second addition in 1955 that included the first indoor restrooms at the church. [2] From 1959 to 1960 the building was raised, allowing for a full basement to by completed. [2] In 1984 construction was completed that added four classrooms to the church structure . [2]
Many pioneers of the Oregon Country are also buried in the cemetery. [2] Joseph Meek is one of the best known of those buried at the Old Scotch Church. [2] Meek died on June 20, 1875, and was originally buried at his homestead, located near a historic marker dedicated to him along the Sunset Highway. [3] Meek was a mountain man, a member of Oregon's Provisional Government, and the first U.S. Marshall of the Oregon Territory. [2] After his land was sold, his remains were moved and re-interred at the church's cemetery. [2] The cemetery also contains a cairn added in 1985 as a memorial to ancestors in Scotland who were massacred at Glen Coe in 1692. [5]
This structure is one of the oldest continuously used churches in the state. [2] The church was the 13th historical site in Washington County, Oregon, to be honored. [2] On November 5, 1974, the church was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Old Scotch Church. [6] The Tualatin Plains Presbyterian Church still holds services in the Old Scotch Church building every Sunday. [2]
Joseph Lafayette "Joe" Meek was a pioneer, mountain man, law enforcement official, and politician in the Oregon Country and later Oregon Territory of the United States. A trapper involved in the fur trade before settling in the Tualatin Valley, Meek played a prominent role at the Champoeg Meetings of 1843, where he was elected a sheriff. He was later elected to and served in the Provisional Legislature of Oregon before being appointed as the United States Marshal for the Oregon Territory.
The Old Ship Church is a Puritan church built in 1681 in Hingham, Massachusetts. It is the only surviving 17th-century Puritan meetinghouse in America. Its congregation, gathered in 1635 and officially known as First Parish in Hingham, occupies the oldest church building in continuous ecclesiastical use in the United States. On October 9, 1960, it was designated a National Historic Landmark and on November 15, 1966, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Hillsboro Pioneer Cemetery is a pioneer cemetery in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. It is located at the west end of the city along the Tualatin Valley Highway and adjacent to Dairy Creek. The 8.42-acre (3.41 ha) cemetery comprises three formerly private cemeteries. In 1973, the city of Hillsboro gained title to what is the oldest cemetery in Washington County.
John Smith Griffin (1807–1899) was an American missionary in Oregon Country who participated at the Champoeg Meetings that created the Provisional Government of Oregon in 1843. In Oregon he served as a tutor at Fort Vancouver and later organized a church on the Tualatin Plains in the Tualatin Valley.
George Wood "Squire" Ebbert (1810–1890) was a mountain man and early settler in the Oregon Country. Born in Kentucky, he settled on the Tualatin Plains in what would become Oregon and participated in the Champoeg Meetings that created a government prior to the formation of the Oregon Territory. During the Cayuse War he traveled with Joseph Meek across the Rocky Mountains to ask Congress for assistance with the war.
Tualatin Academy was a secondary school in the U.S. state of Oregon that eventually became Pacific University. Tualatin Academy also refers to the National Register of Historic Places-listed college building constructed in 1850 to house the academy, also known as Old College Hall. The building now serves as the Pacific University Museum, and is one of the oldest collegiate buildings in the western United States.
The Tualatin Plains are a prairie area in central Washington County, Oregon, United States. Located around the Hillsboro and Forest Grove areas, the plains were first inhabited by the Atfalati band of the Kalapuya group of Native Americans. Euro-American settlement began in the 1840s.
West Union Baptist Church is a Baptist congregation and historic church structure in West Union, Oregon, United States.
Laurel is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Oregon, United States. Settled in 1872, the community is located between Hillsboro and Newberg, in the southern portion of the Tualatin Valley in the foothills of the Chehalem Mountains. The community retains its agricultural heritage. Laurel is served by the Hillsboro School District and includes the century-old Laurel Valley Store building, which is in the process of being turned into a restaurant. As an unincorporated community, Laurel has no defined boundaries or population statistics of its own.
Built in 1912, the First Presbyterian Church of Redmond is the oldest standing church structure in the city of Redmond, Oregon, United States. It is also the second-oldest religious building in Deschutes County. The church was built in the Gothic Revival style with Queen Anne architectural detailing. It was the home of Protestant congregations from 1912 until 1979. Today, the building is privately owned and used as a special events venue. The First Presbyterian Church of Redmond was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
Farmington is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Oregon, United States. It is located on the Tualatin River, a tributary of the Willamette, about eight miles southwest of Beaverton, at the intersection of Oregon Route 10 and River Road. It is about two miles east of the junction of OR 10 with Oregon Route 219. Farmington was one of the earliest settlements in Oregon and was prominent for a time as an important milling and grain-shipping point on the Tualatin when steamships were the principal means of shipping grain along the Willamette River. Farmington was the site of an early Christian Church, founded by 1845 pioneers in Sarah and Philip Harris, who arrived in Oregon via the Meek Cutoff. At that time the locale was called "Bridgeport". Baptisms were in the Tualatin River.
St. Peter's Presbyterian Church is located at the junction of New York State Route 203 and South Street in Spencertown, New York, United States. It is a tall frame building in a style similar to those found in New England, the native region of many of the area's original 18th century settlers. Just to its east is Spencertown Cemetery, with graves dating to 1760, shortly after the area was settled and the congregation formed.
David Thomas Lenox was an American pioneer who settled in the Oregon Country where he organized the first Baptist Church west of the Rocky Mountains. A native of New York, he lived in Illinois and Missouri before he was captain of the first wagon train over the Oregon Trail to what became the state of Oregon. He also organized several schools and churches, and served as a judge and justice of the peace. In Oregon, he settled on the Tualatin Plains near what is now Hillsboro and later lived in Eastern Oregon.
White Clay Creek Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian church located near Newark, New Castle County, Delaware. The current structure was built in 1855, and is a two-story brick structure, nearly as tall as it is wide. The building measures 63 feet deep. The exterior features brick pilasters and tall stained glass windows. A 1996 addition to the front of the building contains an elevator to the second floor sanctuary and is topped by a steeple. It was preceded by a structure built in 1752. The church was organized as early as 1709 to serve Scotch-Irish Presbyterians at White Clay Creek. The original White Clay Creek Presbyterian Church was built in 1721 about a mile north on the NW Corner of Dewalt Rd and Old Coach Rd. It remains the Old White Clay Creek Presbyterian Church Cemetery.
Thyatira Presbyterian Church, Cemetery, and Manse is a historic church at 220 White Road off NC 150 in Mill Bridge in Rowan County, North Carolina, ten miles west of the town of Salisbury. Presbyterians have been worshiping at this site since at least 1753.
Vernal Presbyterian Church is a historic church near Lucedale, Mississippi.
Covenanter's Church is a New England meeting house style structure located in Grand Pré, Nova Scotia, and is the oldest extant Presbyterian Church in Canada. The meeting house was constructed between 1804 and 1811, with the tower, belfry, and steeple being added in 1818.
The South Henderson Church is a historic Presbyterian church located in rural Henderson County, Illinois, east of the village of Gladstone. The church was built in 1854; it was the second church building used by the local Associate Reformed Presbyterian congregation, which formed in 1835 and built its first church two years later. The vernacular building has a wood frame plan and limestone walls and used local materials in its construction, which cost $3,855.55. Reverend Robert Ross led the congregation when it built the 1854 church; Ross was one of the founders of Monmouth College and served on its first Board of Trustees.
The Old Scots Burying Ground is located in the Wickatunk section of Marlboro Township, in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. The cemetery rise is on Gordon's Corner Road, just west of Wyncrest Road. The cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Old Scots Burying Ground is about an acre in size, about 195 feet above sea level and dates back to 1685. The total number of burials at the cemetery is not precisely known, suggested by Symms, "There are a large number of graves in Old Scots yard without any inscribed stones". Some reports place the number as at least 100 known graves with most headstones of brown sandstone. However, more recent research using ground penetrating radar reported by the Old Tennent Church in 2001 has put the number of confirmed sites at about 122 graves with a possible 140 more unmarked; placing the number at about 262 total graves in the cemetery. In 1945, in an attempt to clean out the site of vegetation and over-growth, a bulldozer was used on the property and as a result some headstones were dislodged and broken stones removed. The defining structure in the cemetery is a tall monument to Rev. John Boyd, created by the J&R Lamb Company. Built to commemorate the first recorded Presbyterian ordination of Rev. John Boyd. The monument is currently owned by the Synod of the Northeast who holds the property deed but it is maintained by the Old Tennent Church. The last identified burial at Old Scots Burial Ground was in 1977.
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