Banks Presbyterian Church

Banks Presbyterian Church grew out of the preaching of Rev. William Banks at Providence Presbyterian Church, who died in 1875, and the initiative of Rev. W.E. McIlwaine, a Marvin native who canvassed the neighborhood in 1878 for construction of a new Presbyterian chapel. He raised $650 in one day for the building, and his father, Dr. William McIlwaine, donated land, including the family cemetery where 12-year-old John Alexander McIlwaine was buried in 1867. The original chapel was built by John Squires. In 1911, a $5,500 new sanctuary was dedicated with a stone foundation from a dismantled Native mound and a slate roof. Neighbor Maggie Ross subscribed $800 for the building and donated a piano, pulpit Bible, and leather-bound hymnal in memory of her sister Sallie Ross who died in 1909. She bought the former chapel, moved it across Newtown Road, added a second story, and used it as a tenant house. In 1922, storekeeper Frank Crane bought the structure from Maggie’s estate, moved it across Newtown Road, removed the second story, and used it as a store. It stands next to Crane’s 1906 Queen Anne home. The will of Miss Maggie Ross bequeathed her house and land north of Newtown Road to Banks Presbyterian.