George C. Lorimer

Who was George C. Lorimer?

George Claude Lorimer was a noted reverend, and was pastor of several churches around the United States, most notably the Tremont Temple in Boston, Massachusetts.

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Lorimer came to the United States in 1856 in the hopes of becoming an actor. Coming eventually to Louisville, Kentucky, he came under the influence of Reverend W.W. Everts, who turned Lorimer to Christianity. Lorimer graduated from Georgetown College, Kentucky, in 1859. He was ordained in the Baptist Ministry, first holding brief pastorates in Harrodsburg, Kentucky and Paducah, Kentucky, and then for eight years at the Walnut Street Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. After another brief term in Albany, New York, he next took up an office at the Tremont Temple in Boston, where he would serve as pastor for twenty-one years, with some interruptions. Noted educator Sophia B. Packard served for some time as his assistant.

Early in February, 1879, the financially distressed First Baptist Church of Chicago extended a call to Lorimer to come there from the Tremont Temple, and on May 4, 1879, he preached his first sermon as pastor of the Chicago congregation.