College Hill Presbyterian Church, located just outside

Oxford, Mississippi Oxford is a city and college town in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Oxford lies 75 miles (121 km) south-southeast of Memphis, Tennessee, and is the county seat of Lafayette County. Founded in 1837, it was named after the British city of Ox ...

at College Hill, is an historic church and a member of the

Presbyterian Church in America The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is the second-largest Presbyterian church body, behind the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the largest conservative Calvinist denomination in the United States. The PCA is Reformed in theology and presb ...

(PCA). It is listed on 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 ...

. It was organized as a local church on January 11, 1835, in the home of Alexander Shaw, one of the early Scot-Irish settlers in North Mississippi. Originally it was named Neriah Church, but shortly thereafter it was redesignated Ebenezer Church. In 1836 members migrated to this area and on January 11, 1841, the church was renamed College Presbyterian Church in recognition of the founding of the North Mississippi College. In 1842 the congregation paid $400 for on which to construct a public place of worship. The sanctuary, built in 1844 under the direction of Francis Timmons, is the oldest Presbyterian structure in North Mississippi and the oldest church building of any denomination in the Oxford area. Constructed of bricks fired on the site, the building was completed in 1846 at a total cost of $2,809,75. The pulpit, the pews, and the pew gates are the original furnishings. Events of interest include the encampment of these grounds by Union troops of

General Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General of the United States ...

and

General Sherman William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), achieving recognition for his com ...

, and the marriage of author

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...

. The church is thought to be the model for some settings in Faulkner's novels. The church cemetery contains a number of unmarked Union soldiers' burial sites. The Session's original minutes, dating back to the 1835 organizational meeting, are safeguarded in a local bank. In more recent times, the ministry of the church began an outreach to the students of the nearby University of Mississippi under pastor Jack C. Oates (1967–72) while he was a graduate student and teaching assistant at the university as well as teaching in the university's Continuing Education program. He also served as part-time pastor at two other churches, Hopewell Presbyterian and Abbeville Presbyterian, comprising a three church field in St. Andrew Presbytery of the former Southern Presbyterian Church (PCUS). The ministry continued to grow while Tom Tyndall first served as pastor to the three church field and then just to College Hill Church from 1973 to 1978. In the summer of 1977 the PCUS cited the church's outreach to students as one of two outstanding small church ministries in the denomination. Under both Jack Oates and Tom Tyndall, the church held "Christian Life Conferences" that featured well-known Christian scholars speaking both to the church and to various classes held on the campus of Ole Miss. On August 13, 2022, the church was destroyed by a fire.

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External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi Greek Revival church buildings in Mississippi Churches completed in 1846 19th-century Presbyterian church buildings in the United States Presbyterian Church in America churches in Mississippi National Register of Historic Places in Lafayette County, Mississippi