The first Presbyterian services in Coronado were held on September 18, 1887 in the old Methodist church, NE corner of 7th Street and E Avenue (now school property). The sermon was preached by the Reverend W. B. Noble, D. D., a minister of the First Presbyterian Church of San Diego.

The congregation moved to the schoolhouse after several meetings in the Methodist church and on December 11, 1887, a Sabbath school was organized with James R. Hill as superintendent, George Foster, assistant superintendent and Miss May Gardiner as secretary. The Presbyterian church was duly organized by the Reverend F. B. Stewart, a commissioner of the Presbytery of Los Angeles, at the close of the regular service on March 18, 1888. The name chosen was The First Presbyterian Church of Coronado Beach. Some of the charter members included Mrs. Isabella Graham Babcock, Mrs. Graham, Mrs. Agnes Babcock, Dr. W. F. Bailey, Mrs. A. L. Corey, Mrs. W. C. Erickson, G. B. Maymew and Mrs. Nancy S. Silliman.

The church was built in 1890 from funds supplied by Mrs. Babcock, wife of Elisha Spurr Babcock, Jr., who built the Hotel del Coronado, as a memory to her mother and father, Susan and John Graham. [Other records state that Mrs. Graham's first name was Sarah.] On March 18, 1891, Mrs. Babcock presented the new building, which included four lots, to the First Presbyterian Church and it was officially accepted as a gift on the same day. The following Sunday it was dedicated and renamed Graham Memorial Presbyterian Church. [This conflicts information recorded in The First 100 Years, published in 1988. Graham Memorial Presbyterian Church Session minutes state that the name change did not occur until March 1921.]

Susan Graham was very active as a worker for the Presbyterian Synod of California and it was through her devoted services that the church was organized in Coronado. The church was designed by the renowned architect, James W. Reid, who also designed Hotel del Coronado.

In 1925, the manse (in Scotland, the dwelling-house of a Presbyterian minister), was built next to the church on land that was part of the original gift of Mrs. Babcock. The Reverend Notley Hammock was the first minister to occupy the building.

During the months of January and April 1939 the church was vacant, but the Pulpit Committee of the church recruited the Reverend Kenneth B. Carson from a church in Deming, New Mexico. He arrived in Coronado on April 20, 1939 with his wife, Frances and two young daughters. At that time Coronado had a population of only 6000.

Reverend Carson realized many of his goals for the church and community during his next 42 years of service. The Westminster Fellowship for young people was established; he brought together churches of various faiths and denominations in what he termed an "ecumenical fellowship"; he promoted cooperation between churches in and around Coronado, working with the late Rt. Rev. Monsignor Purcell of Sacred Heart Catholic Church; he became involved with Jewish Synagogues speaking at temples in San Diego; he joined with Catholic and other Protestant church leaders in 1960 to establish an Inter-Church Youth Council; and several years later he also helped establish the San Diego Ecumenical Conference, which now has over 100 Catholic and Protestant member churches, where he served on the Board of Directors. The Coronado High School seniors chose him 15 times to be their baccalaureate speaker at graduation exercises. Reverend Carson preached his last sermon on Sunday, January 25, 1981 and was honored by more than 300 Coronado with a gala luncheon at Hotel del Coronado. Mayor Patrick Callahan presented him with a plaque containing a key to the city of Coronado.

In 1953, the church purchased the historic Charles T. Hinde property adjacent to the manse, which included seven lots, a large mansion and carriage house. The mansion's first floor became the church offices, minister's study and meeting rooms. The second floor was occupied by the caretaker. This building is now called Kirk House.

In 1970, the carriage house was demolished to make way for the educational building which is now the home of Graham Memorial Preschool and Sabbath school.

Following Reverend Carson's retirement, the Reverend Henk Vigeveno served as interim pastor during the search for a new minister. May 1982, the Pulpit Committee recruited the Reverend Jon D. Freeberg from a church in Bridgehampton, Long Island, New York. He arrived in May 1982 with his wife, Barbara, and was installed as minister in September 1982. Upon his arrival, the second and third floors of the Hinde mansion were extensively refurbished and the parsonage was moved there. The caretaker now occupies the former manse.

For over 92 years Graham Memorial Presbyterian Church has played an important part in the religious, educational and cultural development of Coronado.

Historical reference: Graham Memorial Presbyterian Church and Coronado Historical Association.

Victorian-era churches were traditionally white to suggest purity and unsullied celibacy. Therefore, when a major restoration project was undertaken at Coronado's turn-of-the-century Graham Memorial Presbyterian Church, the decision to color the church caused considerable consternation.

The concern was not without basis. The church, after all, had been declared Coronado's first historical landmark in 1972. It was built by Elisha Spurr Babcock, Coronado's first big developer, and the Reid brothers—renowned architects—who also designed Babcock's most splendid venture, the famed Hotel del Coronado.

Over the years, Coronadans had developed a particular affection for the unassuming little church at Tenth and C streets, standing almost in the shadow of the grander white Victorian Kirk House, also part of the religious complex. To color the church? To some it seemed to border on sacrilege. Others were simply skeptical.

But the restoration is complete now, in time for the holidays with everybody fairly pleased and surprised at the aesthetic appeal of the color: a warm blend of golds, muted greens and soft whites from what colorists call the autumn system to suggest spiritual growth and light. Seven tones of gold, ranging from a dark candle glow to a near-white, were used on the main exterior. The golds were complimented by two tones of green used on the trim.

The response, said sexton Jon Freeberg, [an error... Freeberg was the church pastor] has turned from consternation "to excellent, excellent. Just about everybody I talk to now says the church looks great with this new paint job. Except for one or two diehards who just won't give in to anything but white, the overall response is simply ecstatic."

The idea of coloring the church belonged to restoration architect James Gibson, who already has restored the "Baby Del" house on Coronado, the Timken House in San Diego and numerous San Francisco Victorians, always introducing elements of color and subtle shadings on the exteriors.

As on the past projects, Gibson worked out the details of the color work with consultant Irene Sherman. "The idea for color comes from the many different moldings and facets of these buildings," said Gibson. "We had no intention of just painting a gold church, but used colors to bring out the sculptural forms of the building."

"All these Victorian buildings are mostly concerned with ornament, sculptured forms defined by shadowings. With a single color your eye never connects with the ornament because it's too busy looking at the monotone. But when tones of color are used on the moldings and facade, your eye connects much easier with the architectural elements."

Nevertheless, a considerable portion of the 400-member Graham Memorial congregation—not to mention its Board of Deacons and elders plus members of the Coronado city design review board and Coronado Historical Association—expressed concern over the white church being painted gold or any combination of hues when the idea was proposed early this year.

Bunny MacKenzie, a long-time Coronado resident and past president of the historical association, vaguely recalled that the church had been a goldish yellow in the 1930s (a period painting by M. A. Yerkes Offley hanging in the Kirk House verifies this), but she worried about the least bit of tampering with tradition, "particularly at this time when we are losing so many of our fine old buildings."

Numerous special meetings were called to monitor progress as the restoration began in early summer. At one of them, a woman from the congregation stood up to point out that the church had looked okay in white for many years "and the Hotel del Coronado looks pretty gorgeous in white, too." Another congregation member shook his head, and offered somewhat sarcastically that at least they didn't want to paint the church black.

At that point Freeberg sought to be reassuring. "We want to have the most gorgeous corner on Coronado," he said, "a church that is welcoming and dignified, and, we are going to do this right—which is one of the reasons we are having so many meetings just to consider ideas."

Another point of the meetings, obviously, was to keep the project within a snug budget of about $20,000.

Gibson and a small group of apprentices started burning off the layers of paint that had built up over many years, not to mention a stucco coating that at one time had been sprayed onto the steeple, covering up 28 ornamental rosettes. (The rosettes were removed and sent to San Francisco for turning and restoration; they now have been returned to the steeple, providing the church with one of its many decorative motifs.) "What happens," Gibson explained as the burning process got under way, "is that these Victorians have been given so many coats of paint that the fine lines of ornament have disappeared. We have to start from scratch." By early fall, enough burning and scraping had been completed so that the congregation could view the new color hues on a small section of the exterior that Gibson and his crew had painted as a test area. Coronadans scrutinized the color for four critical days. Congregation members tarried long on the corner to discuss the matter after one particular Sunday morning service. It soon became evident that there were more "color" people in the crowd than there were advocates of the white, Freeberg said later.

The church and Coronado city review boards voted to allow the color restoration to continue. Finally, this month it has been completed for Christmas with, not only a bright new facade for the holidays, but the antique bell in the steeple also restored and ready to ring in the New Year. Future plans call for restoration of the complete block of buildings belonging to the religious complex, including the historic Kirk House, to be finished by 1988, the 100th anniversary of the founding of Graham Memorial Presbyterian Church. The church itself was not built until 1890 with funds provided by Isabella Graham Babcock, wife of Elisha Spurr Babcock, who envisioned the legendary Coronado Tent City as "the most unique environment for sediv dwellers in the world." Babcock already was a wealthy entrepreneur who had made a fortune in railroading when he came to San Diego in 1883 to get away from the [article cut here] the Coronado Islands and Point Loma with its gentle, brush-covered mountain slopes and valleys appealed to him. So did the opportunity to enlarge his fortune. He formed a syndicate, purchased 7,000 acres of Coronado land for $110,000 and began to develop it.

Meanwhile, he relocated his family and a pair of architects—James W. and Merritt Reid—to help accomplish the task. The Reids knew Babcock from Evansville, where they had set up their own architectural firm in 1877 after a move from Boston. Both brothers were educated at McGill University and there is some reference to James, the senior of the two, as having attended the New School of Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris. Arriving here in 1886, the Reids' first task was the Hotel del (Coronado). That completed, they moved on to a variety of projects in the San Diego area and in San Francisco that were to mark them as premier turn-of-the-century West Coast architects. In 1889, the Reids opened a branch firm in San Francisco where they designed two of the Bay City's landmark buildings, the Fairmont Hotel (1906) and the Cliff House (1908).

Congregations in two of Coronado's historic churches have special reasons to want Easter morning to be sunny. Both have stained glass windows nearly as old as their 19th century structures.

At Graham Memorial Presbyterian Church, a recent window is pictorial and shows Jesus with a child, a dove and flowers. The older windows on each side of the sanctuary are abstract designs that seem to evoke the grace of the Victorian era in which they were built. They actually are double-hung casement windows and the tops can be lowered. The windows are pointed arches, and looking up, a visitor can see how the frames are pieced together to fit the curves.

Sexton Larry Sand says he uses only vinegar and water to clean the windows. "Lead reacts to most cleaners today," Sand explained. All the windows were reinforced 20 years ago to strengthen them, and the rope in the pulleys is replaced about every 20 years. Maintaining the windows is "nothing scientific, just a little elbow grease," he said. Tender loving care is the best thing I can tell you."

Sand said he doesn't know the history of the windows, but believes they were installed at the same time the church was built. The designs of the windows at Graham are more uniform than the Christ Church windows, but Sand said they fit in a specific pattern. "You can tell if they are not in right," he said. Each of the tall, narrow windows weighs about 60 pounds. "You do not grab a window and walk away . . . they are very heavy windows," Sand said. While the designer of the windows is not known today, the beauty he or she created has inspired worshipers for over a hundred years.

Our First 100 Years, a booklet about the church history written by Elizabeth Huser from the congregation's Session minutes, states: "The year 1891 was a milestone for the new church. The congregational meeting minutes of March 18, 1891, include this entry: "This generous gift of Mrs. E. S. Babcock, who presented this church with a new and elegant house of worship together with four lots, was recognized and resolutions of thanks adopted."

Mrs. Babcock's husband Elisha Spurr Babcock, had just completed the building of the Hotel del Coronado. The architect of the church was James W. Reid, who, with his brother Merritt, were the architects of the hotel, and later of the Fremont Hotel and the Cliff House in San Francisco. The church was constructed of redwood in the same Victorian-Gothic style of the hotel, with fish-scaled shingles and stained glass windows. The belfry contained a rope-pulled bell.