Thirty-eighth of a Series [date unknown]
Westfield Past and Present
The residence at 9 Pearl Street is one of the oldest church structures in Chautauqua County. It was first a meeting house of the Westfield Presbyterian Church and from 182l or 1822 when it was built, until 1832 when it was sold and moved to its present location, it stood on the site which is now occupied by the Presbyterian Church at the corner of South Portage and McClurg Streets.
Though the first Presbyterians in Westfield formed a church in 1808, membership was never large or strong enough to build a regular meeting house until after the church was formally organized in 1817 by Eber Stone, Jonathan Cass and other early settlers. By 1832 "The First Presbyterian Church in the County of Chautauqua" as it was named when organized in 1817 under state law, was strong enough to build a brick church and the old meeting house was moved to its present location and converted into a residence.
The land to which the meeting house was moved in 1832 belonged to Austin Smith and his wife, Sarah Anne McMahon Smith.
In 1855 the building and the land it occupies was sold by Mr. and Mrs. Austin Smith to Dexter Knowlton who built thereon the finest mansion in Westfield. In 1864 the house was part of a large property bought by George Holt, shipbuilder and owner of many ships that carried passengers and freight on Lake Erie. He was the grandfather of George Holt of today, the Westfield attorney.
The Holt family owned the former meeting house, as a part of the Holt estate, until 1900 when the Holt mansion burned and the ground it had occupied was sold to the village as a site for a school building.
The former meeting house has passed several hands since the Holt family, sold it. Today it is part of the undivided estate of the late Mathilda Wilmarth Johnston who bought the house and its lot more than 50 years ago.
The house today is occupied by Mrs. Johnston's daughter, Mrs. Alta Watson, who as one of her mother's heirs, shares ownership of the house with her brother, Arland Wilmarth of East Lake Road and a sister, Mrs. Linda Ward of Erie.
The structure is sturdily built and in excellent condition. Though present generations do not know the full history of the old meeting house, its religious origins linger as a community memory. Even young people in their teens will point it out as "The old Presbyterian Church that was moved from the village park a long time ago."