Editor's Note  

In the end it was the leadership of the Clerk of Session, Eleanor Warren, and the determination of the session itself that dictated Hanover's future. There would be no merger. Hanover Street Presbyterian Church would remain at 18th and Baynard. There were challenges, but none that couldn't be overcome by faith and hard work. The congregation felt it had the power, even without a pastor, to persevere in the face of adversity.

This history of Hanover Street Presbyterian Church, written on the occasion of the 225th anniversary of its founding, is, perhaps appropriately, the work of a committee. Its foremost contributor, however, worked alone. He is James L. Latchum, who 25 years ago wrote a history to mark the 200th anniversary of Hanover. Judge Latchum's history is the benchmark for any subsequent historian, and his work has been incorporated freely and at length into this one, usually without attribution.

To him should go most of the credit and none of the blame for this updating of his work. The authors who contributed to this history were Timothy Arnold, Ellen Casson, Oliver Casson, Chris Lindsay and Mary Jo Psomas. They pored over documents in the Hanover archives, interviewed past and present members, and pursued other accounts of Delaware, Wilmington and Presbyterian history to compile their accounts. Their efforts have added significantly to the foundation created by Judge Latchum, and to them go the balance of the credit for the production of this history.

Any errors of omission or commission, therefore, must rest with the editor, whose instructions were to bring some degree of consistency to this history without rendering it flavorless. If he has succeeded, it is only because the ingredients were already fine enough to require little more than a trim here, an addition there, and perhaps a hint of seasoning.

William Tudor, editor
October 1997