First Presbyterian Church in Columbia rises on ground that was once a cemetery. This building, constructed in 1854, is the church the city knows today and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 25, 1971. But the congregation's story begins earlier: its first meetings were held in 1795, and it did not have its own building until 1813, having met in the South Carolina State House and on the campus of the South Carolina College.
In 1813 the South Carolina Legislature incorporated the congregation as the "First Presbyterian Church of the Town of Columbia. The ground beneath you has an even older tale: from 1794 to 1813 this site was a shared cemetery with the local Episcopal congregation, the legislature giving the cemetery and other lands to be shared between Episcopalians and Presbyterians. A local legend says First Presbyterian and the now-nearby Trinity Episcopal Cathedral drew lots, and First Presbyterian received the cemetery at the corner of Lady and Marion Streets.
The 1813 building still stands nearby and is now called Jackson Hall. Nearby, the congregation's 1813 building still stands as Jackson Hall, while the corner of Lady and Marion Streets keeps the older story of a shared cemetery.