When Christ Community Church moved from downtown Franklin to its new facility on Hillsboro Road in the fall of 2001, the church retained the Historic Downtown Chapel with the desire that it could continue to be used for ministry purposes as well as for church planting. This hope was realized in December 2006 when Pastor George Grant, along with elders and deacons from Christ Community, planted Parish Presbyterian Church using the Chapel as its home.

Over the next four years, Parish grew to the point of needing three morning worship services to accommodate the congregation. One of Parish Presbyterian’s founding principles was the desire to continue to plant daughter churches. In the fall of 2010, Parish purchased property and a permanent home on Clovercroft Road in east Franklin. With that as a catalyst, Pastor Nate Shurden and elders and deacons from Parish remained in downtown Franklin to plant a daughter church, Cornerstone Presbyterian Church.

Cornerstone Presbyterian began meeting on January 16, 2011 as a church plant and received full status as a church in our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, in November 2011. We are grateful that God has blessed our fellowship with members of all ages—from children, to large numbers of young families, to grandparents.

The Historic Downtown Chapel was originally built by First Baptist Church in 1849. Although the building was damaged in the Civil War, it was rebuilt, then rebuilt again in 1890 after a fire. The First Baptist congregation moved about two miles away in 1988 and sold a collection of buildings, including the chapel, to Christ Community Church. In March of 2012, Cornerstone bought the Chapel from Christ Community as a permanent home.