Long before Peachtree City had neighborhoods full of homes, a network of golf cart paths, or enough churches to suit nearly every tradition, a small group of residents began gathering for worship in a building that also served as a post office, bank, civic center, and office space. Those gatherings eventually became First Presbyterian Church of Peachtree City, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of its 1966 charter on Sunday, August 30. But the church’s story begins about five years before that charter — and, in many ways, alongside the story of Peachtree City itself. Joel and Geri Cowan, now 90, were there before either was fully established. Joel Cowan was still a student at Georgia Tech when he became involved in the effort to assemble land and create the planned community that would become Peachtree City. The Cowans married in December 1957 and moved to the fledgling community on January 1, 1959. When state legislation formally created Peachtree City later that year, Cowan — then about 22 years old — was named its first mayor in the legislation. What Cowan was trying to build, he said, was more than a subdivision. “You have to realize that I was building a town,” Cowan said. “Normally, if you a real estate developer, you pick a town like Fayetteville and buy 500 acres adjacent to it, but you had the grocery store, the school, you had the infrastructure there.” “My job was to create a town, literally,” he said. “You know, with mayor, council, churches, schools, that…
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