Over the winter of 1902 and 1903 nine women and two men successfully petitioned the Kearney Presbytery of the Synod of Nebraska of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. to allow for the organization of a Presbyterian Church in Gothenburg, Nebraska. Services were held in the Gothenburg City Opera House on the 10th of May, 1903 with Reverend Fuller A. Mitchell conducting. Eight women; Mrs. R.L. Carothers, Mrs. Catharine A. Williams, Miss Catharine Ann Williams, Mrs. Florence A. Bartholomew, Mrs. Clara S. Vroman, Mrs. Lizzie Winchell, and Miss Myrtel F. McCormack, joined hands while the Church was constituted by prayer. These eight ladies are the Charter Members of the First Presbyterian Church of Gothenburg. From that first service until September 23, 1906 services were held at the Opera House. In 1903 the land where the Church now stands was purchased. Within the year the Church had raised enough money to start construction of the present day building. The present day Church building was built in three stages. The first stage was the construction of the basement and Sanctuary. The basement was completed in 1906 and services were moved there from the Opera House. The Sanctuary was then completed in early 1907. In 1928 a choir and music room addition was added to the west side of the Church and in 1962 work was completed on the Christian Education Building which lies to the south of the Sanctuary and now acts as the main entrance to the building. In the spring of 2003 the present day members of the First Presbyterian Church celebrated a century of worship and fellowship through a series of events and services.
