History

Unique Location and Community

Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church (CHPC) has been a worshiping community in the Capitol Hill neighborhood for over 140 years. In its earliest years, CHPC met in several public meeting rooms on the Hill, including the House Post Office and Post Roads Committee Room of the US Capitol. In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant laid the cornerstone of the current Victorian church building, and in 1872 construction was completed and worship began.

Since its inception, CHPC has taken a leadership role in the community to address the intellectual, spiritual and physical needs of the Capitol Hill neighborhood. In the 1960s, CHPC sponsored a Head Start Program and coffee house, and initiated the Capitol Hill Group Ministry (CHGM), a group that continues to provide important and needed services to our community’s needy. In 1978, CHPC opened the Washington Seminar Center in its basement to provide visiting groups affordable housing and thoughtful programming during their mission trips to Washington, DC.

Proximity to the US Capitol, the Library of Congress, the House and Senate office buildings, and a variety of federal policymaking bodies means that, in addition to the concerns of our neighborhood, the nation’s and the world’s issues are also distinctly CHPC’s issues. Our membership is an informed and inquisitive group that is acutely aware of local, national and international issues, and engages in thoughtful dialogue about them in order to better understand them and develop Christian response to them.