The History of Memorial

Presbyterian Church

  Our church has been serving the community since 1873, and has been at this location since 1904.

Our church was built during the ministry of Dr. Raymond Hilliard Gage.  He began his service as the minister of the First Presbyterian Church, located on S. Clinton Ave. By 1902, the membership had grown to the point that a new place of worship was needed.

On January 9th, 1903, Elder Thomas W. Synnott proposed to the Board of Trustees his plan for a new and more modern building which he wished to erect as a memorial to his mother. 

A resolution was passed on January 28, 1903, stating that Mr. Thomas W. Synnott, “an honored Elder of our church and President of our Board of Trustees, has out of the goodness of his heart, and love for the Master”, agreed to give us a magnificent church edifice, to be located on the beautiful lot, corners of Mantua and Princeton Avenues.

Mr. Synnott conveyed the land, buildings and furnishings to the church, free of all debt, as a memorial to his mother, under the condition that the name of the church would be changed to the Memorial Presbyterian Church of Wenonah, New Jersey.

Isaac Pursell, one of the most prominent architects in the East, was the designer of our church and the manse next door at 6 S. Princeton Avenue.  He designed churches for many denominations from Maine to Tennessee.  He was born and raised in Trenton, New Jersey, and moved to Philadelphia as a young man.  He apprenticed with Samuel Sloan and opened an independent office in 1878. 

Many of Pursell’s church designs exhibit the English Gothic Revival Style.  Our church is built of Port Deposit granite and trimmed with Indiana limestone.

At the time of his death in 1910, Isaac Pursell and his family resided on S. Princeton Ave. in Wenonah.  He and his wife are buried in Wenonah Cemetery.