Copyright Notice: This article is from the Encyclopedia of North Carolina edited by William S. Powell. Copyright © 2006 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

Long Street Presbyterian Church. Image courtesy of the Fayetteville Area Convention and Vistors Bureau.
Long Street Presbyterian Church. Image courtesy of the Fayetteville Area Convention and Vistors Bureau.
The Long Street Presbyterian Church, originally known as McKay's Meeting House, was established in 1756 on land that is now part of the Fort Bragg military reservation to serve a community of Scottish settlers. In 1758 the Reverend James Campbell, a Scotsman, established three "preaching stations": Long Street, Bluff, and Barbecue Churches. These are among the oldest Presbyterian churches in North Carolina. The third building to house the Long Street congregation, a Greek Revival derivation, was constructed in 1847 and still stands on the military reservation amid firing ranges and training fields not generally accessible to the public. Elise Academy, a boarding school, was once located near the church. In 1921 the federal government purchased the church building and six acres surrounding it for addition to the Fort Bragg; it now maintains the building, the cemetery, and the grounds.

Many gravestones in the cemetery bear the inscription "Born in Scotland," and a large monument commemorates the burial at the site of a number of Civil War dead, including 30 Confederate casualties from a nearby battle. On the last Sunday in June each year, descendants of former members of Long Street congregation gather at the church for a worship service, a picnic lunch, and a program to recount their Scottish Highlands heritage.

References:

William C. Field, A Guide to Historic Sites in Fayetteville and Cumberland County, North Carolina (1993).

R. A. McLeod, Long Street Presbyterian Church (1923).

John A. Oates, The Story of Fayetteville and the Upper Cape Fear (1972).

Image Credit:

Long Street Presbyterian Church. Image courtesy of the Fayetteville Area Convention and Vistors Bureau. Available from http://www.visitfayettevillenc.com/churches/display/14/Long+Street+Presbyterian+Church (accessed June 5, 2012).

Citation

Remsburg, Mary Keene. "Long Street Presbyterian Church." NCpedia. Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press. Accessed on January 12th, 2025. https://ncpedia.org/long-street-presbyterian-church.