People, Locations, Episodes

Wed, 10.18.1758

Old Bluff Church (North Carolina) Holds Its First Service

*Old Bluff Church held its first service on this date in 1758. Old Bluff Presbyterian Church is a historic church near Wade, Cumberland County, North Carolina.

The church congregation was founded during the antebellum era of the American South. Later, its pastor was the Rev. John McLeod, who came from the Isle of Skye, Scotland, in 1770. Many families of Highland Scots accompanied him.  In 1858, the congregation dedicated a new church building constructed in the Greek Revival style. It indeed had Black members of the church during the dark days of slavery, and some are even buried in a portion of the graveyard designated for non-whites.

The church is a plain, weatherboarded building with details that appear neoclassical moldings, including drill work suggesting triglyphs, dentils, and egg-and-dart on the frieze and pediment. It is a large Greek Revival-style temple form building. It features a two-story, five-bay tetrastyle porch in antis. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.