William Rhett House, 58 Hasell Street
The Izard Houses; Nearer, Home of Bishop of Charleston; Other is the Older—110 and 114 Brand Street
UNITARIAN CHURCH, 6 Archdale Street: Just before the American Revolution, the Circular Church on Meeting Street, cradle of Presbyterianism in Charles Town, found it necessary to use an additional building. Thus another church with another pastor was established in Archdale Street. One of the pastors espoused Unitarianism and by amicable agreement the part of the congregation following his teachings took over the Archdale Street church. While the British occupied Charlestown during the Revolution, they stabled horses in this edifice. The present church building was dedicated in April of 1854, and is much praised for its architecture. The ceiling of the nave is peculiarly attractive. The pastor of this Unitarian congregation, the only one in Charleston, was the Reverend Samuel Gilman, author of the famous college song, “Fair Harvard,” and in his memory Harvard alumni arranged the Samuel Gilman Memorial Room in the church tower; the ceremony was performed April 16, 1916.
ST. MARY’S CATHOLIC CHURCH, 79 Hasell Street: Mother parish of the Roman Catholic Church in North and South Carolina and Georgia, St. Mary’s congregation was organized in 1794, and in 1798 bought a frame building from a Protestant congregation. In 1836 this was burned and on the site the present fine brick edifice was erected being completed in 1838. In the late 1890’s the interior was improved. Memorial stained-glass windows were emplaced. Of its interesting graveyard Bishop John M. England who came to Charleston in 1820 (finding two Catholic churches occupied and two priests doing duty) wrote: “The cemetery of this church which is now in the center of the city affords in the inscriptions of its monuments the evidence of the Catholicity of those whose ashes it contains. You may find the American and the European side by side.... The family of the Count de Grasse, who commanded the fleets of France near the Commodore of the United States and his partner, sleep in the hope of being resuscitated by the same trumpet.” According to David Ramsay, “prior to the American Revolution in 1776, there were very few Roman Catholics in Charleston, and these had no ministry, but of all other countries none has furnished the Province with so many inhabitants as Ireland.” About 1786 a vessel bound for South America, having an Italian priest aboard, put into Charleston. This priest celebrated mass for a congregation of about twelve persons. It was “the first Mass celebrated in Charleston and may be regarded as the introduction of the Catholic religion to the States of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia which afterward constituted the See of Charleston.” The history of St. Mary’s is coeval with the history of the Roman Catholic religion in the Southeast, excluding the Florida possessions of the Spanish.
ST. JAMES, GOOSE CREEK, off the Coastal Highway: The British Royal Arms still stand in South Carolina! The British yoke was thrown off one hundred and sixty years ago, but in St. James Church, Goose Creek, sixteen miles from the city hall of Charleston the Royal Arms have never come down! The ancient edifice stands in a tranquil woodland, quite near The Oaks, home of Arthur Middleton in early years. At the foot of the altar is a tomb with this inscription: “Here lyeth the body of the Reverend Francis Le Jau, Doctor in Divinity, of Trinity College, Dublin, who came to this Province October, 1706, and was one of the first missionaries sent by the honourable society to this Province, and was the first Rector of St. James, Goose Creek, Obijt. 15th September, 1717, ætat 52, to whose memory this stone is fixed by his only Son, Francis Le Jau.” In the records left by Dr. Le Jau is mentioned that he christened Indians. Four acres for the old parsonage were the gift of Arthur Middleton, and another pioneer gave the Glebe of one hundred acres. The cherubs in stucco over each of the keystones are famous and so is the pelican feeding her young, over the west door. Interesting memorial tablets have places. In the present day this picturesque and historic church is easily reached by automobile. Each year at Easter divine services are held in the church, the congregation invariably overflowing the building. The original church was built soon after Dr. Le Jau’s arrival.
ST. ANDREW’S, BERKELEY, on the Ashley River Road: The parish of St. Andrew’s, Berkeley (the district about Charles Town was Berkeley in olden times), was founded in 1706 and a simple brick building erected. Seventeen years later this was enlarged, taking the form of a cross. The gallery was intended for non-pewholders and was later set aside for negroes. Destroyed by fire it was rebuilt in 1764 and is one of the few rural churches that has survived the Revolution and the War for Southern Independence. St. Andrew’s was one of ten parishes authorized by act of the Assembly in 1706 regulating religious worship in accordance with the forms of the Church of England. In quite recent years a question relative to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London was raised! St. Andrew’s had its genesis when the colony had a population of 9,000, “of whom 5,000 were Negro and Indian slaves.”
ASHLEY RIVER ROAD, Leading to Famous Gardens: St. Andrew’s Church is but one of many interesting and historic places on the Ashley River Road. Two miles from the Ashley River Bridge the road passes near the site of the original Charles Town in South Carolina and three miles farther is the Ashley Hall plantation of the Bull family, distinguished in provincial and colonial periods. It was on the Bull place that Attakullakulla, a chief of the Cherokee Indians, signed a treaty of peace in the 1760’s after his tribe had been severely humbled by the whites. Just across the highway were the lovely Magwood Gardens, now the property of a granddaughter of President Abraham Lincoln. Here the highway passes through a grove of majestic live oaks festooned with Spanish moss. Seven miles from the bridge one passes St. Andrew’s Church and a short distance farther through old Fort Bull, the moat about which has been filled. Next, on the right, is the entrance to Drayton Hall, then Magnolia Gardens, Runnymede, home of John Julius Pringle, Speaker of the House of the Assembly in 1787, and later the property of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of the famous Pinckney family; Middleton Place (gardens) where is buried Arthur Middleton, Signer of the Declaration of Independence; the seat of the old Wragg barony; the Ashley River is crossed at Bacon’s Bridge near which stands an ancient oak beneath the spreading boughs of which General Francis Marion is alleged to have entertained a British officer (it is a pretty legend, but its site is severally located). Half a mile beyond the bridge is the road leading down to the ruins of old Dorchester, established in 1696 by colonists from Dorchester, Massachusetts, led by the Reverend Joseph Lord. In this year ruins of fort and churches are mute reminders of a brave village in a primeval wilderness infested with savage Indians. From Bacon’s Bridge the distance to Summerville is five miles. It is a drive every visitor to this section should follow. In the season, the Middleton Place and Magnolia Gardens are open to visitors.
Foreground, Unitarian Church; Background, St. John’s Lutheran Church