First Presbyterian Church
El Paso, Texas

Description: First Presbyterian Church
Address: Northwest Corner East Yandell (originally East Boulevard) and North Stanton Street, El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Type: religious: church
Original Client: New Presbyterian Church building committee
Date: 1906-1908
Condition: demolished

Architect or Firm: Henry C. Trost
Associated Architect or Firm: Trost & Trost
Contractors:
Dimensions and Orientation: 92 feet wide X 116 feet long, with 1,200 seats (according to preliminary estimate in 1906); tower 180 feet.
Budget/Cost: $60,000

Foundation: stone
Wall Materials: red brick, trimmed with white stone
Roofing Materials: shingle
Other Materials Used: concrete belt course between basement and principal story; concrete (?) roof coping
Remodeling and Additions:

Location of Drawings: none known to exist
Location of Documentary Photographs: El Paso Public Library: Ponsford 223, postcard printed by S. H. Kress & Co.; Ponsford 190, perspective view.

Bibliography: (1) El Paso Herald, July 28, 1906, page [1] (architects and building committee named, budget, dimensions, and seating capacity reported, and preliminary sketch [page 46 in bibliography item below] reproduced)
(2) Trost & Trost, Architects (El Paso: Trost & Trost, 1907), page 46 (preliminary sketch)
(3) Sarah Jane Dodds, The First Presbyterian Church, in: Harriot Howze Jones, editor, El Paso, a Centennial Portrait (El Paso, El Paso County Historical Society, 1972), pages 74-76 (history of the church, dates of its buildings)
(4) El Paso Herald, June 28, 1906 page 10 ‘ Presbyterians Select Plans for New Church”

Remarks: The building was dedicated January 14, 1908.

The plans called for the disposal of the present structure and the immediate building of a new church. The new building was erected at the corner of Stanton street and the Boulevard. The building had a total seating capacity of 1,200 people.

In the basement was located the assembly room, kitchen, dining room, the men’s and women’s assembly rooms. Besides the pastor’s study and choir room, there was to be twenty one rooms in the Sunday school end of the church and thirty two rooms in all. A large class room was separated from the main auditorium by a folding partition. There was also a large balcony. The pastor’s study, choir room and other rooms were located on the first floor. The inside was be equipped with circular pews and a pipe organ.

Prepared for the El Paso Public Library by Lloyd C. and June F. Engelbrecht under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1990