CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES IN CHARLESTON, S.C.
By Superintendent R.C. Hitchcock.
Of much interest to me is the "Circular Church" in Charleston. As early as 1690 a wooden building was erected on the site now occupied by the Circular church, the street being named "Meeting Street" and the building known as the "White Meeting." Its members were Scotch Independents and Presbyterians, with a considerable element of Huguenots from France. For one hundred fourteen years this house was used as a place of worship, for the first forty of which the two bodies maintained a union, after that two churches were formed, the Independents or Congregationalists retaining the house. In 1731 the Presbyterians erected a wooden building on the east side of the same street, many of the Scotch going with this body. During the Revolutionary war, while the city was held by the British, the church was used as a storehouse and its interior shared the fate of the Boston "Old South." Its congregation was composed of both white and colored members, but only "freemen" could vote in meeting.
The Civil War with its results, effected a separation of the white and colored members, the white people rebuilding their lecture-room, the colored worshiping in various places until 1867, when a letter was sent the old church by a number of the former members, requesting an honorable dismissal. This was granted and one hundred eight colored people presented themselves for membership in a church contemplating organization, as a Congregational church, to be called
PLYMOUTH CHURCH.
This organization was consummated April 14, 1867, under the auspices of the American Missionary Association. And in 1872 a suitable edifice was erected on Pitt Street at a cost of $5,000. The present pastor, Rev. Geo. C. Rowe, is much beloved by his people.
A tasteful parsonage is being erected on the church lot. It was greatly needed. Plymouth Church is reaching out in schools and missions among the colored people with earnest efficiency.