The First Presbyterian Church of Blissfield is an active

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

building located at 306 Franklin Street in the village of Blissfield in Blissfield Township in eastern

Lenawee County Lenawee County ( ') is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 99,423. The county seat is Adrian. The county was created in 1822, from territory partitioned from Monroe County. Its g ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. It was designated as a

Michigan State Historic Site The Michigan State Historic Preservation Office is one of 59 state historic preservation offices established according to the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 that plays a role in implementing federal historic preservation policy in the ...

on June 11, 1965 and was later added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on September 3, 1971. It was the second property in the county listed on the National Register after the Walker Tavern. The congregation in Blissfield, which was formally organized on February 29, 1829, is one of the oldest

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

congregations in the state. The church originally held services in the home of Hervey Bliss, one of the village founders, and later in a schoolhouse. The current

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

church was constructed in 1849 at a cost of $2,800 under the ministry of Reverend

John Monteith John Lennox Monteith DSc, FRS (3 September 1929 – 20 July 2012) was a British scientist who pioneered the application of physics to biology. He was an authority in the related fields of water management for agricultural production, soil phys ...

, who was a graduate from the

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of ...

. Monteith, along with

Gabriel Richard Gabriel Richard (pronounced rish-ARD) October 15, 1767 – September 13, 1832, was a French Roman Catholic priest who ministered to the French Catholics in the parish of Sainte Anne de Détroit, as well as Protestants and Native Americans liv ...

, co-founded what would later become the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. Monteith served as the university's unofficial first president from 1817–1821 after having moved to the

Michigan Territory The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit w ...

in 1816. He would later move to Blissfield and preach from 1845–1855. During that time, he headed the funding for the construction of the church. The building is the fifth oldest operating Presbyterian church in the state of Michigan and the oldest church in Blissfield. In 1883, the building itself was moved slightly to its current position just north of

U.S. Route 223 US Route 223 or US Highway 223 (US 223) is a diagonal (northwest–southeast) United States Numbered Highway System, United States Numbered Highway lying in the states of Michigan and Ohio. The southernmost section is completely concurrency ( ...

near the

River Raisin The River Raisin is a river in southeastern Michigan, United States, that flows through Ice age, glacial sediments into Lake Erie. The area today is an agriculture, agricultural and Industrial sector, industrial center of Michigan. The river flo ...

. In 1953, a large addition was added to the church, which greatly changed the appearance of the original church structure.

References

External links

Blissfield Presbyterian ChurchFinding Aid for the First Presbyterian Church (Blissfield, Mich.) records 1845-1977, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan
{{National Register of Historic Places Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Presbyterian churches in Michigan Greek Revival church buildings in Michigan Religious organizations established in 1829 Churches completed in 1849 19th-century Presbyterian church buildings in the United States Michigan State Historic Sites in Lenawee County 1829 establishments in Michigan Territory National Register of Historic Places in Lenawee County, Michigan Churches in Lenawee County, Michigan Wooden churches in Michigan