Built in 1740, this brick meetinghouse with its gambrel roof is the Old First Presbyterian Church of Wilmington. Imagine it first standing on the east side of Market Street between 9th and 10th Streets, later pressed into wartime service: during the American Revolution British troops used the building as a prison and hospital during the occupation of Wilmington after the Battle of Brandywine on September 12, 1777. It kept its role as a house of worship until 1840, and a cemetery on the site was the final resting place of many noted Wilmingtonians before they were reinterred to Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery and Riverview Cemetery.
In 1916 the little brick church was moved; it was dismantled and rebuilt and re-dedicated in 1918. The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Delaware was given the building to maintain and restore; they use it as their headquarters and open it to the public on 2nd Sundays, April-October, 2-4 pm. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
Picture British troops using these walls as prison and hospital, and follow West Street down to Brandywine Park Drive.