Carson City’s First Presbyterian Church is one of the oldest churches in not just Carson City, but all of Nevada. Construction started on the first section in 1862, before Nevada became a state. One of the early members was Orion Clemens, brother of Mark Twain. Orion managed to rope his brother into a speaking at a fundraiser for the church, which helped push the project over the finish line. So this is one of the few Nevada churches to also be able to claim a direct link to Mark Twain.

The original church before expansion.

The church, on the corner of King and Nevada Streets, was expanded a few times over its 160+ years. In the 1890s it was more than doubled in size, and a bell tower was added. During the 20th century further expansions were done on the Division Street side of the property, expanding the footprint even more.

By the 1940s the wooden cupola on the bell tower had deteriorated and had to be removed. But the tower remained. That wasn’t the only problem the old building would run into. By the turn of the 21st century, the original sanctuary that Mark Twain had helped build was structurally unsafe, so the congregation had to stop meeting there and move into another part of the building. The church wanted to demolish the old sanctuary and build new, but couldn’t get the approval of the Historic Resources Commission. So instead, the church demolished some of the additions on the Division Street side and built a new sanctuary there in 2008.

That brings us to today. The paint applied to the old building was causing problems, because the bricks weren’t able to breathe properly behind it. The same issue had been happening at the Brewery Arts Center nearby, which underwent a big project to strip the paint and restore the brick surface. The Presbyterian Church decided to do the same thing but on a smaller scale. So this year a masonry restoration company began working on the bell tower, stripping the paint and restoring and preserving the original brick. The project was finished recently, and it’s looking great.

I’d love to see the rest of the church get the same treatment, but restoration like this is costly. It took fundraising and grants to just to get this much done, but the church is wanting to continue the work. It will just have to be done in phases. This is a great start though!