From www.kennethwmilano.com -

The record is clearer concerning the Cohocksink Presbyterian Church. It was organized in that village north of Center City in 1840, from a mission started by members of the 1832, Central Church, in the Cohocksink Mechanics' Institute building. The church built its first building on the opposite side of the Institute's lot at Germantown Road and Chatham (later Berks) Street, and worshiped there until 1867, when it relocated at Franklin Street and Columbia Avenue. Members of the church's Gaston Memorial Missionary Society (named in honor of Daniel Gaston, Cohocksink's pastor from 1845-1865), organized the Second Street Mission on Second Street above Berks. Another mission sponsored by this Society became the Gaston Presbyterian Church in 1876, at Eleventh and Cumberland Streets.

In 1890, Cohocksink was one of the large churches in North Central Philadelphia, reporting 696 members, and 544 pupils in its Sunday school. Ten years later it had lost half of its membership, and continued to decline for the next 15 years. As members moved away because of racial change in the community, leadership and financial resources dwindled, and internal strife further weakened the congregation. In 1915 the church asked the Presbytery of Philadelphia to dissolve it. The congregation's lingering resentment toward those they blamed for bringing its fellowship and ministry to an end found expression in this provision of its petition: "We favor and support the transfer of the property. . . to the Trustees of Presbytery, the church building to be sold by them. . . (but not to a colored church or organization)." Proceeds from the sale of the property were placed in a Cohocksink Presbyterian Church Memorial Fund, with income designated for the support of needy Presbyterian churches and missions in Philadelphia.