File:First Presbyterian Church, Westfield, New York - 20210131.jpg

English: First Presbyterian Church, 49 South Portage Street at McClurg Street, Westfield, New York, January 2021. A prominent landmark in the village and a contributing property to the NRHP-listed French Portage Road Historic District, this is a handsome High Victorian Gothic church whose date of construction is a complicated matter that's open to interpretation: architect Aaron Hall submitted the original blueprint in 1872 and construction was completed two years later, but the building was razed after an 1878 fire only to be rebuilt according to precisely the same design the following year. In 1962, the building was partially razed again: the original south wing, crowned with a third steeple, gave way to a contemporary-style Christian Education Building. Regardless, the building's resolute vertical orientation is very much in keeping with the Gothic: the western spire stands 176 feet in height (making First Presbyterian by far the tallest building in Westfield), while the eastern one is 96 feet high. The quatrefoil is a recurring motif, seen topping the narrow stained-glass windows on the western spire and the lateral orientations of the building proper, standing alone near the middle of the eastern tower, and even - if you look closely - crowning the triptych of Gothic-arched stained-glass windows on the façade above the crocketed entrance gable facing Moore Park. Though now darkened to a slate gray, the Berea sandstone trim that frames the windows and caps the buttresses was once much lighter and brighter in color, and made for a stark contrast with the ruddy brick. The oldest religious congregation in Chautauqua County of any denomination, First Presbyterian dates to 1808, when the "Chautauqua Church" was formed by the area's earliest white settlers, most of whom were of the Presbyterian faith. The land on which the present church sits was deeded to the congregation in 1831 by early settler James McClurg; their first permanent home, a smaller brick building, was erected here shortly thereafter, followed by the two Aaron Hall-designed buildings as detailed above.