Above: 200 Years and More of the First Reformed Church, C. Nevin Heller, 1936. The illustration shows the central pedimented doorway which was removed in a later renovation.

Zurich is often considered a birthplace of the Reformed Church. The Grossmünster (Great Cathedral), there, is the mother church of Ulrich Zwingli’s Reformation. Lancaster’s First Reformed UCC Church can trace its theological DNA back to that landmark Swiss church. The Lancaster twin steeples are a reflection of the Swiss spires that rise high above Zurich’s Limmat River.
When the Lancaster church was being built some members wanted to top the steeples with small domes, like the Grossmünster steeples. Rev. Harbaugh disapproved. He wrote, “There is strong disposition to turn our steeples into domes!…What a looking thing a dome would be on such a building.” Pointed steeples won the day, instead of dome-topped steeples. Historian Colin Williams suggested that some of the advocates for domes may have been European immigrants who had seen Zwingli’s church in Zurich.

Above: A stained-glass Ulrich Zwingli poses in front of the twin steeples of Zurich’s Grossmünster. The window was installed in the Lancaster church in 1913 by d’Ascenzo Studios of Philadelphia. The designer was Nicola d’Ascenzo, an Italian-born artist who was one of Pennsylvania’s premier stained-glass deigners.

Classical Lancaster Steeples
Georgian-Style Spires on Brick Towers:

Above: Jacob Wall’s Court Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Lynchburg, Virginia (1850), now demolished. The chancel columns are similar to the Frederick UCC Church and the Lancaster UCC Church. Above images: Left: Lynchburgphotos.org Right: LynchsFerry.com

  Above: Mahogany doorframes enhance the Classical Revival vibe of the Lancaster sanctuary. Ionic pilasters flank the two main entries. They repeat the two Ionic columns that flank the altar at the opposite end of the sanctuary.
Meanwhile, high above the pews, a magnificent dome with a central oculus is the interior’s crowning statement about Classical Revival design. Before a 1905 renovation, the dome was frescoed with a coffered pattern, like a Lancaster reference to the Roman Pantheon, the most influential of all Classical domes.

Above: Architect Jacob Wall’s Charles Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore. Built in 1843 with a portico of Ionic columns. The building is demolished. Image source: 19thcenturyBaltimore.wordpress.com

  1863 was a jubilee year for First Reformed Church. It was the 300th anniversary of the publication of the Heidelberg Catechism, the denomination’s primary catechism. Rev. Amos H. Kremer was the Lancaster pastor during that time.
This is the earliest-known photo of First Reformed Church. It reveals the original design of the building’s chancel and furnishings. The pulpit rises behind the altar. Both are timmed in dentils and decorative panels to repeat the Classical Revival details of the chancel.
This sanctuary’s original design was mostly white: white pews, chancel furnishings, ceiling, and walls. The 1905 renovation transformed the sanctuary with mahogany woodwork and colorful details. The mahogany pulpit and altar were carved by Alois Lang. Today’s opalescent chancel window was installed during that same 1905 renovation.

Above: Christmas in 1904. Until the 1905 church renovation, Lancaster’s First Reformed dome was frescoed with a Neoclassical coffered design. The sanctuary’s design paid homage to the architectural traditions of the Classical past. The domed ceiling with its central oculus suggested a Roman Pantheon transported to Orange Street.
The J. and R. Lamb Company replaced that Classical Revival ceiling with a beautiful ceiling that rises over the pews like a celestial galaxy of gold and green.

Classical Revival architecture was the latest fashion in the 1850s when First Reformed Church used that style for the new sanctuary and chancel. A few years earlier the Reformed Church’s Marshall College in Mercersburg had built two architectural tributes to Classical design: the college’s Goethean Hall and Diagnothian Hall (1844 to 1845). The two buildings were home to the school’s two literary / debating societies.
Prof. Samuel W. Budd, Jr. designed those college buildings. Their facades featured classical porticos lined with Ionic columns. Prof. Budd was a Princeton graduate. His designs for those buildings are mirror images of two Classical Revival buildings he had seen at Princeton: the two buildings which housed Princeton’s debating societies.
A few years later similar Ionic columns appeared in the new chancel of Lancaster’s First Reformed Church. Rev. Henry Harbaugh, the church’s pastor, helped direct the construction. He had attended Marshall College in the 1840s where he was a member of the Diagnothian Society. His new church building aligned itself architecturally with his college. The church and college also shared similar theology, the “Mercersburg Theology.” Marshall College eventually become Lancaster’s Franklin and Marshall College.

The design of this church building is like a complex recipe of many ingredients. Architect Jacob Wall combined his Classical Revival interior details with other ingredients from other traditions.
University of Pennsylvania historian George E. Thomas observed the Germanic influences on this building’s double towers. The architecture feels Anglo-Germanic-American. The double towers of Continental influence are topped by spires of British influence. Those wooden spires point toward James Gibbs’ London.
Meanwhile, the building’s prominent arches can seem Romanesque. But the building is too early to be labelled just Romanesque Revival. And it’s too late to be called Federal. A 1905 newspaper called it Colonial. This church’s design is not easily defined. It’s like a Post-Federal hybrid. The building is a vibrant blend, whatever its label. And it has much appeal, like Lancaster City itself.