First Presbyterian Church (Edmonton)
First Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian Church in Canada congregation and Gothic Revival church building in downtown Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The congregation celebrated its 125th anniversary in November 2006.
The Organizational Meeting for this congregation was held on November 3, 1881, and the first building opened at 104 Street and 99 Avenue a year later. The second structure was completed and dedicated in July 1902 at 103 Street and Jasper Avenue. The present building was completed in November 1912. In September 1978 the building was designated a Provincial Historic Resrouce.
A notable minister was The Rev. David George McQueen, DD, LLD who served for 43 years, starting in 1887 upon graduation from Knox College, University of Toronto, and guided the formation of numerous congregations in the area. He served as Moderator of the General Assembly in 1912 and as "Interim Moderator" in 1925, before Ephraim Scott was elected to resume the "Continuing Presbyterian Church". McQueen's predecessor and FPC's founding Minister was Rev. Andrew Browning Baird, DD, who arrived in Edmonton before the arrival of the railway, but left Edmonton for a professorship at Manitoba College. It is said that McQueen was a staunch opponent of Church Union in 1925, and that First Presbyterian Edmonton was the seat of the "rebellion" which saw 1/3 of the Presbyterian Church remain independent of the newly formed United Church of Canada.
