Old Pine became known as the "Church of the Patriots", because many of the parishioners such as John Adams, stood with George Washington. George Duffield served as pastor from 1772 until 1790; during the American Revolution, Duffield served as a chaplain of the Continental Congress. The churchyard dates to the congregation's place in the American Revolution. The church counts those buried to include
9 members of the Carpenter's Company of Philadelphia
The cemetery also includes medical doctors, lawyers, sea captains, silversmiths, stonemasons, tavern keepers, tradesmen, and everyday citizens from the Colonial era. The last interment in the churchyard was in 1958 for In Ho Oh, a murdered University of Pennsylvania student.
Current activity
Old Pine is now the only remaining Presbyterian building in Philadelphia from before the American Revolutionary War. Continuing our more than 200 years of community activism, Old Piners were among the first to respond to the problem of the homeless on the streets of our city. In 1982, it founded and, in the beginning, sheltered the Philadelphia Committee for the Homeless. In 1978, Old Pine started its Saturday for Seniors program to provide a weekend hot lunch and take-home snack for the city's elderly—a Philadelphia first. With no charge and no means test, SFS has become a vital weekend home for more than 100 older people from all over the city. Old Pine continues its commitment to serve the poor in the 21st century. The congregation participates in a local Habitat for Humanity project in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Philadelphia, joining with other Presbyterian congregations to jump start development there and in surrounding blocks. In addition, it sends members to communities impacted by natural disasters: the Gulf Coast to help the clean-up and rebuilding effort in the wake of the disastrous Hurricane Katrina; flooding disasters in Huntington, West Virginia and Towanda, Pennsylvania; Bayville, New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy.
