Landmarks of Charleston / Including Description of an Incomparable Stroll

by Thomas Petigru Lesesne

Colonial Powder Magazine, 23 Cumberland Street

WESTMINSTER CHURCH, Rutledge Avenue and Maverick Street: This Presbyterian congregation sold its building at 273-75 Meeting Street to the Trinity Methodist Episcopal congregation and erected a new church about two miles from the other site. The congregation derives from St. Andrew’s, or the Third Presbyterian, Church in Archdale Street, built in 1814. It was due to a separation from the First (Scotch) Presbyterian Church. The Reverend Dr. Buchan was the first pastor. About 1850 this church was razed, the congregation building anew on the west side of Meeting Street; the new church was called the Central and for more than twenty years was under the pastoral charge of the Reverend W. C. Dana. With it merged the Glebe Street Presbyterian Church of which the eminent Reverend Dr. J. L. Girardeau was pastor. The Central Church became Westminster. The old yard in Archdale Street is not now used for burials.

OLD THEATER SITE, Joseph Jefferson, Manager: In 1793 the Charleston Theater was built in a corner of Savage’s Green and about the same time New Street was built. Years afterward Joseph Jefferson, famous and beloved American comedian, managed a theater in Charleston. He told the writer that it was at New and Broad Streets, but authorities say that Mr. Jefferson was mistaken; that he meant another old theater at Friend (Legare) and Broad Streets. The late Reverend Dr. Robert Wilson told the writer that this was another mistake, as Mr. Jefferson managed Placides Theater in Queen Street! Mr. Jefferson’s mother was born in Charleston.

SUGAR FACTORY SITE, Later a Home of Correction: According to The Courier (May 16, 1868) at the west end of Broad Street was Savage’s Green on which, before the Revolution was built a manufactory for loaf sugar. For this reason it was known as the Sugar House. It became a Work House or House of Correction. “The lot, together with the building,” says The Courier, “was afterwards owned by Dr. Le Seignieur, who, in 1807, contemplated the establishment of a cotton manufactory. The plan was abandoned in consequence of the machinery having been lost on its passage from Europe.”

SECOND (FLINN’S) CHURCH, Meeting and Charlotte Streets: Presbyterians in Charleston growing in number it was decided that another church was necessary and thus the Second Church was organized in 1811. Its site is the highest place within the City of Charleston, about fifteen feet above mean low water. The tower behind the portico was intended to be surmounted by a steeple, but this addition has yet to be erected. From its first pastor, the church is often alluded to as Flinn’s.

ST. MATTHEW’S CHURCH, 403 King Street: At Christmas, 1867, the corner stone for St. Matthew’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church was laid. The church building was dedicated in March, 1872. The tallest spire in Charleston surmounts the church. An impressive representation of the Crucifixion is in a stained glass window.

CITADEL SQUARE CHURCH, 328 Meeting Street: Offspring of the old First Baptist Church in lower Church Street, the Citadel Square was founded in 1854 and the building dedicated in November, 1856. Members of the Wentworth Street Baptist Church joined with the Citadel Square. In the cyclone of 1885 the steeple fell in such manner as to carry away the front walls of the residence at the northeast corner of Meeting and Henrietta Streets. Several years ago the church building was renovated, the already large auditorium made larger. The Citadel Square, deriving its name from the nickname of the Marion Square which it faces, has one of the largest Baptist congregations in the South.

CHURCH OF THE HOLY COMMUNION, Cannon Street and Ashley Avenue: From this church went its rector, the Reverend H. J. Mikell to become Episcopal Bishop of Atlanta. The late Anthony Toomer Porter, D.D., was its rector for years and this gave the name of Holy Communion Church Institute to what is now the Porter Military Academy. St. Timothy’s Chapel at Porter is more or less attached to the Holy Communion.

ST. ANDREWS LUTHERAN, 37 Wentworth Street: This church building was severely damaged by Union shells in the War for Southern Independence. It was then a Methodist property. After Appomattox this congregation joined with a Morris Street Lutheran congregation under the pastorate of the Reverend Dr. W. S. Bowman. It has had a succession of able, eloquent Lutheran ministers, including the Reverend James A. B. Scherer and the Reverend M. G. G. Scherer.

ST. JOHANNES CHURCH, 48 Harrell Street: This building was first used by the St. Matthew’s congregation which later built on King Street opposite Marion Square. As St. Johannes, it was organized in 1878, though the earlier Lutheran congregation was there in 1841.