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In the spring of 1640, a group of English Puritans left Lynn, Massachusetts to make a new settlement on Long Island. They came to the New World to seek freedom from religious persecution and greater economic opportunity. This new land was conducive to the lifestyles of the settlers. They were able to live peacefully with the Shinnecock Indians and raise their cattle in the luscious pastures of the East End of Long Island.

The church first gathered in the Community Meeting House built in 1640. It served as a social, civic, and religious haven for twelve years. The church’s first pastor established the Christian faith among the neighboring Shinnecock Indians and then went on to found Newark, New Jersey.

In 1652, the first church structure was on Main Street, known then as Town Street, and was home to the congregation for fifty-five years. Built on a land grant, the property included the “Old Burying Ground” all the way to Lake Agawam.

For 155 years the third church gathering place was a stately 1707 structure on Main Street. Here, Reverend Thomas Gelston was ordained the first Presbyterian minister in the Colony of New York. In that sanctuary in 1716, the Presbytery of Long Island was organized. The Reverend Sylvanus White pastored the church for fifty five years, leading it through the American Revolution. Tradition states that the Presbyterian rebels dismantled two canons of the occupying British forces and hid them in the church bell tower.

The present, beautiful “wood gothic” church was built prior to the Civil War in 1843. In the basement of the church men enlisted in the Union Army, and many of those died in combat and in the Andersonville Prison Camp. The church was enlarged in 1895, and a three story Christian Education building was constructed in 1957. In 1965, in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, the Bethel Presbyterian Church (the first African American Presbyterian Church on Long Island) merged with First Church. The church has remained an integrated congregation.

Today the church is an alive, active, committed congregation of 600 members with extensive programs meeting the needs of all ages. Although it is in its fourth century of service to Jesus Christ, it seeks to grow and continue to be an effective witness to the Christian faith on the East End of Long Island.