History of First Christian Church

The First Christian Church of Savannah was founded in 1819.  It owes its origin to Sheldon C. Dunning, a prominent businessman who was one of the owners of the steamship S. S. Savannah.  A former Baptist lay minister, Dunning had become concerned that his baptism did not represent the centrality of the death and resurrection of Christ, and he had converted to Apostolic Christianity.  In 1819 he baptized two people in the Casey Canal – Christian Herman Dasher, a Salzburger Lutheran from Effingham County and an unnamed elderly black woman from Savannah who worshipped as Dunning did.  These three members began the first New Testament congregation in Savannah.

In 1838 Alexander Campbell, the founder of the Disciples of Christ denomination in the United States, visited the Savannah church and found about twenty members meeting in the Dunning home.  Their services included reading from Campbell’s translation of the New Testament.  In the late 1840’s the church began conducting services in the Fireman’s Hall on South Broad (Oglethorpe) and Abercorn Streets, opposite the old Colonial Cemetery.  The first Sunday school of the Disciples of Georgia is reported to have been held by this congregation.

In 1883 the congregation purchased a lot at the corner of Bolton and Howard Streets and built the first permanent building in 1886.

In 1944 the congregation purchased a lot on the corner of Victory Drive and Atlantic Avenue.  The complete complex of buildings, including the current Sanctuary, was dedicated to God’s service in 1955.