Church History

Second Presbyterian Church owes its distinctive architecture to its first minister, Moses Drury Hoge who guided the church building committee to choose architect Minard Lafever, of New York, to design the new structure in a Gothic Revival style. Completed in 1848, Second Church stands today as Lafever's only commission to be built in the South. The sanctuary interior features an elegant hammer-beam ceiling and a paneled reredos behind the pulpit. All of the woodwork was originally painted to resemble golden oak. Hoge’s oratorial skills drew large congregations and, by 1872 or 1873, the church added transepts and a balcony. The structure is on the National Registry of Historic Places and is a Virginia Landmark. Because the actual cost of the building exceeded estimates, the 120-foot-tall bell tower remained without a bell until 1995.

Organized by East Hanover Presbytery, Second Presbyterian Church has stood on North Fifth Street in downtown Richmond since 1845. Its first minister, Moses Drury Hoge, led the church for 54 years. 

During the Civil War, Second Presbyterian was in a volatile and important position in Richmond. Hoge was an ardent supporter of the Confederate cause and served as the official minister of both the Confederate Congress and Camp Lee. He ran the Union blockade to Great Britain to obtain Bibles for the Confederate Army and probably to seek the British government’s recognition of the Confederacy. Hoge preached before Queen Victoria, and rather than accept a personal gift chose instead some sprigs of ivy from Westminster Abbey. The ivy he brought back still grows around the base of Second Church.

Moses Drury Hoge died in 1899. Never again would Second have a minister at the helm for such a long tenure. The early years of the 20th century were years of change for Second as professional city government officials and business leaders shaped the future of Richmond. Second was instrumental in establishing six churches in Richmond but, like so many churches, concentrated its efforts on white Richmonders. Women of Second became involved with movements that advocated reform in labor for women and children, better education opportunities, improved public health, and curtailing the liquor traffic. 

In 1945, Second Presbyterian provided funds for Gamble’s Hill Community Center, a non-sectarian center designed to provide a variety of activities for the white children of Gamble’s Hill, once a neighborhood of middle managers and by the mid-1940s a neighborhood of low-rent tenements. For sixteen years the center provided a nursery, lunch for children, monthly physical checkups from City Health officials, and other activities. 

As Richmond grew and its population changed, Second remained downtown as other downtown churches moved into the suburbs. After years of segregation under Jim Crow laws, Second Church was not immune to the growing civil rights movement and the changing demographics. With the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, local newspaper editor James Kilpatrick sounded the alarm for massive resistance. In 1954, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, meeting at Montreat, North Carolina, repealed its policy of segregation as well as adopting a “plan of organic union” with the northern Presbyterian church. Second’s ministers and congregants became more active in social issues and race relations. In 1957, Fred Olert (1952–1957) chaired the Richmond Ministers Association committee that produced a “Statement on the Conviction of Race,” a position paper that criticized the Virginia General Assembly and the governor for enacting no-integration legislation. In 1969, James Forman, head of the National Black Economic Development Conference, delivered the Black Manifesto to Riverside Church in New York City. Two weeks later, Linwood C. Corbett and Howard Moore delivered a Richmond version of the Black Manifesto to both Second Presbyterian and St. Paul’s Episcopal. This manifesto demanded reparations from white churches and synagogues for “centuries of exploitation,” the monies to be spent to alleviate poverty in African-American communities.            

Responding to the need for cooperation and coordination between the downtown churches to improve race relations and to meet increasing homelessness and poverty, Second was a founding member of the Downtown Cooperative Ministry in 1968. In 1978 the leadership of Second, as part of the DCM, organized the Prison Visitation Program which continues weekly to transport family members to the area prisons to visit inmates. The DCM developed its Walk-In Ministries to provide noontime meals for the homeless. Under the leadership of Benjamin O. Sparks (1982–2007), Second and the DCM were founding members of CARITAS, Congregations Around Richmond Involved to Assure Shelter, in 1986 which provides sleeping areas from November until March for the homeless where they also receive breakfast and a shower. Second established a non-denominational child care center in 1972 that caters to children of downtown workers. It was the first child-care center in Virginia to receive national accreditation.

Today, Second Presbyterian continues to seek mission opportunities for the entire congregation that are worthy of its history and facilitated by its continued presence in the heart of the city. We welcome all whom God calls into life, worship, work, and leadership of this church without regard to gender, cultural heritage, skin color, socio-economic status, gender identity, sexual orientation or other life circumstances.

Pastors since 1845

Dr. Moses Drury Hoge 1845-1899
The Rev. Donald Guthrie 1899-1900
Dr. Russell Cecil 1900-1925
Dr. William E. Hill 1926-1940
Dr. Frederick V. Poag 1938-1942
Dr. Armand L. Currie 1942-1949
Dr. Frederick H. Olert 1951-1957
Dr. James W. Clark 1960-1965
Dr. James F. Anderson 1966-1972
Dr. Albert C. Winn 1974-1981
Dr. O. Benjamin Sparks 1982- 2007
Dr. Alexander W. Evans 2008-2023