If you walked by Old Pine Presbyterian Church from early February through May, you would have seen construction apparatus and caution tape. The church is currently undergoing extensive renovations on its first floor; however, these newest changes are not as dramatic as previous renovations that have occurred during the church’s 255-year history.           

     The most extensive change to the building occurred in the Victorian Era when the church was being led by its most influential pastor, Thomas Brainerd. Brainerd wrote a history of the church in 1859 following that work. He states that earlier in the 19th century the lack of space caused weekly religious lectures to be held in the sanctuary and Sunday School was in the galleries. More space was lost in 1849 when an organ was installed.  

     However, lack of space was not the only factor in renovations being made. Brainerd was adamant in his disproval of the church’s original design. Built in the 1760s when Presbyterians mirrored Quakers, the building was a plain edifice called a “meeting house.” Brainerd took the lead in transforming “the unsightly and unattractive building” into a “beautiful and classic temple; united the associations of a venerated antiquity with the demands of modern taste.” Elsewhere he described his church as a “barn.”  

     When Brainerd came to the church in 1837, he directed the initial transformation of the church by “modernizing” the windows and adding a Lecture Room, Study, and Committees Rooms. That cost the church $19,000 (about $600,000 in 2023*). Still deeply critical of the exterior, Brainerd had architect John Fraser transform the plain meetinghouse into a Victorian neo-classical temple with the addition of columns to the front, which cost $11,500 (nearly $420,000 in 2023), all of which was raised in a year. At the time of his writing Brainerd had been pastor for 22 years gaining 900 communicants, baptizing 800 people, officiating 583 marriages, and attending 820 funerals.  

     These many funerals greatly changed the landscape of the current burial grounds as well. During Rev Brainerd’s time, Old Pine had an Internment Committee that approved burials, collected fees, and kept records. Unfortunately for present day historians the register of internments that detailed the number and size of graves is lost.  Pew holders in good standing (i.e., pew payment paid up at time of death) were entitled to internment. The Sexton, who dug and refilled the grave, received $1.50 (about $55 in 2023) for attending the burial. The “Grave Digger’s Charges” were $1.50 for a 9’ deep grave if the person was older than 12; $1 for an infant or child under 12. In 1859 the church owned a second graveyard at Carpenter and Fifth Street. It appears that this was the burial site for “strangers,” people who were not church members. Here the burial fees were $3 for children under 12 and $6 for people older. It should be remembered that the foregoing only applied to that part of the Pine Street graveyard that Old Pine owned; the western third of the graveyard was stilled owned and controlled by First Presbyterian Church, which bought that land in the late 1700s.              

     In the post-Civil War period few internments took place. The graveyard at 5th & Carpenter was sold and the bodies buried there were relocated. Philadelphia increasingly limited the burial of people in the city limits. Moreover, “cemetery parks” like Laurel Hill Cemetery, created in 1836, were increasing sought after by those who could afford burial in a beautifully landscaped area along the Schuylkill River.  

     Given the historic significance of Old Pine Street Presbyterian, referred to as the Church of the Patriots, renovations to the church are approached with the goal of preserving the past while making space for the future.  

     The Old Pine Conservancy continues to support the church’s work of preserving of the graveyard that is the resting place of over 200 American Revolutionary veterans. To learn how you can join us in this effort, please visit www.oldpineconservancy.org/donate.    

*19th century values adjusted for inflation are, at best, impressionistic and not exact. The do give an idea of how much certain things or activities cost.