Eager to make a statement with a new uptown edifice, the congregation of First Presbyterian called Starkweather from Philadelphia to design a Gothic Revival church, the most lavish the city had witnessed. Exemplifying the English Gothic Perpendicular Style of the late Middle Ages is its steeply pitched roofline and parapets, piercing central tower, and flanking octagonal turrets. Faced in a warm brown New Brunswick sandstone, the church exudes adornment. Its dizzying height is achieved through structural iron manufactured by the Patapsco Bridge and Ironworks and a spire designed by Starkweather’s former chief draftsman Lind.
The complementary Manse was also designed by Starkweather and constructed concurrently for the church’s Reverend John Chester Backus as his private residence (purchased by the congregation in 1923). The congregation merged with Franklin Street Presbyterian Church in 1873 to become First and Franklin Presbyterian Church.