James Pierpont wrote Jingle Bells while serving as music director here

James Lord Pierpont served as the music director of this congregation during the 1850s. At that time, the church building occupied a different lot on Oglethorpe Square before the congregation moved the entire structure to this location. Pierpont was a member of a prominent family; his father was the Reverend John Pierpont of Boston, a well-known abolitionist, and his brother, John Pierpont Jr, served as the minister of this very church. While his father campaigned against slavery in the north, James Pierpont moved south to work for his brother and eventually married Eliza Jane Purse, the daughter of Savannah mayor Thomas Purse.

The song known today as Jingle Bells was published in August 1857 by Oliver Ditson and Company of Boston under the title The One Horse Open Sleigh, with a copyright date of 16 September 1857. A historical marker on this square identifies Pierpont as the composer. The origin of the song remains a point of contention between Savannah and Medford, Massachusetts. Medford historians point to a plaque at 19 High Street in Medford Square, which claims the song was written in 1850 at the former Simpson Tavern during the town's annual winter sleigh races.

Savannah’s claim, championed by the city's mayor in 1985, rests on the idea that a composer would not hold onto a successful melody for seven years before publishing it, suggesting it was written in Georgia by a New Englander recalling the snow. However, researcher Kyna Hamill identified a playbill for a performance of The One Horse Open Sleigh on 15 September 1857 at Ordway Hall, a minstrel theatre in Boston. This evidence suggests the song was composed in Boston before Pierpont moved to Savannah in the autumn of 1857.

Pierpont lived from 1822 to 1893 and later served with a Confederate cavalry regiment. He composed a great many songs during his lifetime, but this single melody traveled around the world. He is buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah.