Built in 1878, the Orchard Road Presbyterian Church is the oldest church at Orchard Road. Prior to its construction, local Presbyterians (a Christian denomination) worshipped at Mission Chapel, a worship hall established at Bras Basah Road in 1823. In 1875, the Presbyterian congregation was granted land at Orchard Road by the government for a new church.
The church was designed in a simple but elegant neoclassical style with a small roof dome. In Malay, the church was known as Greja Kechil or “small church” due to its size. Its early congregation included many Scots, so it also became known as the Scots Church during colonial times.
After independence, the demographics of the congregation changed, with locals making up more than half the congregation by the end of the 1970s. The church underwent an extension in the mid-1970s to increase its capacity but the overall look of the church was maintained by building the extension annex at a lower height than the original church cupola.
Today, the church caters to the diverse local Presbyterian community with services in English, Mandarin, Indonesian and German.
