Our church is about 285 years old, as of 2015. Highlights of our history were presented by Dick Hunter, Mark Linehan, and Chuck Radke at a Yorktown Historical Society talk on January 21, 2015 in our sanctuary:

The congregation was formed in 1730.
Our building is on land that was acquired in 1739, “… in the thirteenth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King George the Second …”, specifically “… for the use of a Presbyterian Congregation and to be used as a publick place for divine worship … according to the form of worship used and exercised by the now established Presbyterian Church Government in that part of Great Britain called Scotland ….” At the time, ours was the only church in Van Cortland Manor.
Our first church building was constructed in 1738. That building was burned down by the British during the Revolutionary War.
The first Proceedings of the Prisbeterian Society of Hannover (the original name of our church, when the area was called “Hanover”) are dated 1760. That year, the church called its first pastor, the Reverend Samuel Sackett.
Under our second pastor, the Reverend Silas Constant, there was a dispute in 1806 as to whether our church should be Presbyterian or Congregational. Reverend Constant and most of the congregation left to form their own Congregational Church, which was located on Granite Springs Road. That church reunited with First Presbyterian in 1865.
Our second building was erected in 1785, and was replaced by our current sanctuary in 1840– it is 175 years old in 2015.

Click on the image above to see the presentation charts; a version with notes is also available. If you’re interested, you can review an online collection of FPCY historical images and records.

Mark Linehan