Almost two centuries ago, our neighborhood Calvinistic Church was the
Market Square Church, one of the earliest (1733) German Reformed Churches in America. However, the services there were nearly always spoken in German. There was high hope on the part of some that the next pastor would preach in English. But another pastor from Germany had agreed to come and the older members if the Church stipulated that it must be on condition that all services be in German.

This situation had much to do with the origin of First Church, for young people
at this time no longer knew German very well and therefore had little participation or interest in the Market Square Church. The idea of organizing an English speaking Calvinistic Church was now quickly crystallized. There was already a definite constituency for such a Church since some more years a group had been meeting at the home of Rev Samuel Blair, on Sunday afternoons for the benefit of his expositions of the Scripture.

Dr. Blair was a distinguished clergyman (born 1741) who, at the age of 25,
had been a colleague of Dr. Sewell of the Old South Church in Boston. Because of poor health, he gave up his Pastorate in Boston and came to live at is wife’s home in Germantown. While at Boston, he had been called to the presidency of the College of New Jersey (Princeton University), but resigned in favor of Dr. John Witherspoon of Scotland.