Rocky Spring Presbyterian Church

Rocky Spring Presbyterian Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	Rocky Spring Road, approximately 0.5 miles (0.80 km) northwest of Funk Road, Letterkenny Township, Pennsylvania
Coordinates	39°59′19″N 77°40′35″W
Area	2 acres (0.81 ha)
Built	1794
Architect	Beatty, Walter
Architectural style	Georgian
NRHP reference No.	94000430[1]
Added to NRHP	May 13, 1994

The Rocky Spring Presbyterian Church is an historic, American Presbyterian church that is located in Letterkenny Township, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, United States.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.[1]

History and architectural features

Built in 1794, this historic structure is a 1+1⁄2-story, four by six-bay, brick, Georgian-style building that measures forty-eight feet by sixty feet, and has a gable roof. The interior of the church includes two ten-plate stoves, brick aisleways, a crude ladder leading to a loft, and wooden pews that are long and narrow with high straight-backed seating. The ends of the pews are carved with the names of the previous occupants identifying the military ranks they held during the Revolutionary War.

Rocky Springs Church was a pay for pew church that required members to sign a financial agreement between the trustees of the church and the pew holders requiring an annual fee for occupancy of the pew.[2]

The Church's pulpit is circular in form and positioned above the pews giving the speaker full view of the congregation. Access is gained by a staircase. Above the pulpit is an oval-shaped canopy or sounding board.

Five acres of land to build the church were acquired by warrant on November 6, 1792. Trustees of the congregation[3] who acquired the land upon which to build the church included: George Matthews, Esq., James McCalmont, Esq., James Ferguson, Esq., James Culbertson, Esq., and Samuel Culbertson. The property includes the church cemetery; the oldest gravestone dates to the 1780s.[4]

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.[1]

Each year, the church is opened for an annual Presbyterian service giving the people in attendance an opportunity to experience the austere beauty of the church.[5]

Gallery

• 
  Drawing made in 1894 for the centennial
• 
  Rocky Spring Church, 2013
• 
  Pews carved with the name of the pew holder
• 
  Straight-backed, carved, pews and crude ladder to loft
• 
  Church cemetery

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
2. Engle, William Henry (1970). Notes and Queries: Historical, Biographical and Genealogical: Relating Chiefly to Interior PA. Genealogical Publishing Company. pp. 98, 103.
3. Wylie, Rev SS (August 23, 1894). History of Rocky Springs Church. Chambersburg, PA: Franklin Repository Press. p. 27.
4. Oldest dated gravestone is John Burns' and is dated 1760. "National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania". CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information System. Archived from the original (Searchable database) on 2007-07-21. Retrieved 2012-02-01. Note: This includes Paula S. Reed (May 1993). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Rocky Spring Presbyterian Church" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-02-01.
5. Brechbill, Bonnie H. "Annual Service Gives Public a Chance to Worship at Old PA Church". Herald Mail Home. Retrieved 7 May 2014.

External links

• History of the Rocky Spring Church : and addresses delivered at the centennial anniversary of the present church edifice, August 23, 1894 (1895)