Beulah Presbyterian Church
Image courtesy of Lee Paxton
8 November 2009
Website:
https://www.beulahpresby.org/
Telephone Number:
(412) 242-4570
Location:
2500 McCrady Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15235
Description:
In 2014, Beulah Presbyterian Church in Churchill marked its 230th anniversary of being a place of Christian worship. It has a long history, deeply intertwined with the early settlement of English-speaking people in the area. Worship has continued there since a gathering of soldiers led by British Brig. Gen. John Forbes who defeated the French at Fort Duquesne in 1758.
The Presbytery officially recognized the church in 1784 and the church-- originally called Bullock Pens for the soldiers’ cattle yard there, later called Pitt Township Presbyterian Church -- was named Beulah in 1804.
After meeting in two earlier log structures (one a simple cabin, the second a cross-shaped building), worshippers built the first brick church in 1837, and that building still stands at Beulah Road and McCrady Road.
The cemetery holds the graves of veterans from Gen. Forbes’ troops, as well as men who fought in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I and World War II. Grave markers for men, women and children carry names now found on area streets and landmarks: Johnston, McCrea, Lindberg, MacFarlane, Kelly.
Early members of the church, believed to be one of the first Christian churches west of the Alleghenies, later founded other Presbyterian churches in the region: East Liberty (1828), Crossroads (1836), Hebron (1849), Wilkinsburg (1866), Turtle Creek (1878), Forest Hills (1904). Although membership was at 126 in 1826, the number had declined to 95 in 1872.
