First Presbyterian Church of Roanoke Rapids, NC
16 East Fifth Street, Roanoke Rapids, NC   27870
252-537-4018,  office@fpcrr.com

History

The church was organized June 25, 1899 with fourteen members, two years after the town received its charter.  The members met in private homes until 1914 when they started meeting in a local theater until the present church was completed in 1915.   The first full-time pastor started in 1914.  Membership was 141 in 1916, 131 in 1921, and 206 in 1946.

During 1914-1915, the current lot on the corner of 5th Street and Roanoke Avenue was purchased and the cornerstone of the new church building was laid on January 31, 1915.  The first service was held in the new church building May 9, 1915.  Using gray granite blocks cut in odd shapes and sizes, the building was constructed along Tudor English architectural lines, marked by a low square tower and steeply pitched hipped roof.  Inside was a domed, eight-sided sanctuary seating about 150 people, a small choir loft, a pastor's study, a large fellowship room, three Sunday School rooms, a vestibule, and front and side entrances.  Leaded glass windows were given as memorials and officers and stockholders of Roanoke Mills Company donated the original pipe organ.

The manse on Jackson street was sold in 1927 and the home immediately behind the church was purchased as the manse.  In 1940, the first son of the church became a candidate for the ministry and the Educational building was completed.  The Bolling Road Chapel opened in 1952 with semi retired former pastor Stanley White as pastor.

The Loy Memorial building was completed in 1960 when the membership was 365.  Late in 1961, fire nearly destroyed the church sanctuary and services continued in the Loy building.

The rebuilt sanctuary  was dedicated Sunday, August 25, 1963 and seats nearly four hundred and cost approximately $110,000, including the new Casavant organ. The new sanctuary took in the old fellowship room, the choir loft, and one of the original Sunday School rooms, as well as the old sanctuary. The new pulpit and choir loft, done in a stained wood, were placed in the opposite end of the building from the original location of the old pulpit and choir loft.  The Chancel Window contains symbols which speak of the Christian Faith in every age and was designed by Robert J. Wysocki.  At the right front of the sanctuary stands the oak Baptismal Font, a survivor of the 1961 fire.  In that same corner of the sanctuary inset into the wall is the unique carving of Rembrandt's "Supper at Emmaus".  The carving, a gift of the pastor, John Mack Walker, Jr., is of crotch walnut.

Membership was 415 in 1965.  In 1966, the Bolling Road Chapel became the Stanley White Presbyterian Church.  In 1974, the manse was leased to the county health department as a Mental Health Clinic.

In 1991, the church was incorporated as a North Carolina corporation and the Walker building was completed.