Landmarks of Charleston / Including Description of an Incomparable Stroll

by Thomas Petigru Lesesne

ST. PHILIP’S CHURCH, 144 Church Street: St. Philip’s is the oldest Protestant Episcopal congregation south of Virginia. The first edifice was built on the site now occupied by St. Michael’s (southeast corner of Meeting and Broad Streets). The second and third were built at the present site. The first St. Philip’s was erected in 1681-82. It was of wood, but little is known of it. Early maps designate it as the English Church. The second St. Philip’s was opened for divine worship Easter Sunday, 1723. It faced the west and its steeple was eighty feet high. John Wesley, founder of Methodism, preached in this church two hundred years ago. The first Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina was the Right Reverend Robert Smith, rector of St. Philip’s. This edifice was known far and wide for its great beauty. It was burned February 15, 1835. The third St. Philip’s was used for service May 3, 1838. Its chimes, cast into Confederate cannon, have never been replaced. During twenty-two years an important mariners’ light glowed in the steeple, the other light of this range having been on historic Fort Sumter. The light above St. Philip’s was discontinued when the main channel was changed about twenty years ago. St. Philip’s is known as the Westminster of the South as so many distinguished men of early years are in its graveyards, including Edward Rutledge, Signer of the Declaration of Independence; John C. Calhoun, often appraised South Carolina’s greatest statesman; William Rhett, captor of Stede Bonnet and his associate pirates. During the War for Southern Independence Calhoun’s body was removed for safekeeping, but it was later reinterred. The story of St. Philip’s is coeval with the story of Charleston on this peninsula. Its communion plate is of uncommon interest and value, including pieces presented by William Rhett and a paten of unquestioned antiquity. The present edifice faces the east. The curve in Church Street passes through the site of the body of the edifice that was burned in 1835. President George Washington attended services in the second St. Philip’s May 8, 1791, and President James Monroe May 2, 1819. The present St. Philip’s is accounted one of the beautiful churches of America.

St. Philip’s Episcopal Church

CRADLE OF PRESBYTERIANISM, 138 Meeting Street: The congregation of the Circular Church dates to 1681. The small wooden building in the erection of which Landgrave Joseph Blake was influential was known as the White Meeting House and was replaced in 1804 by a brick edifice circular in form, that was burned in 1861. It was this church that gave name to Meeting Street. From this congregation sprang two other congregations, the First (Scotch) Presbyterian and the Unitarian. Some of the earliest graves in Charles Town are in the Circular Churchyard. David Ramsay, physician, statesman and historian, is buried in it. Some of the early Huguenots (French Protestants) are also buried in it. The chapel in the rear of the yard was built after the fire of 1861. The present edifice is without a great portico over the street.

HUGUENOT CHURCH, 136 Church Street: The only Huguenot Church in America! This is the proud and unique distinction of the French Protestant Church in Charleston. Its congregation holds to the old Huguenot litany. It dates to 1681. The first recognized and regular pastor of the French Church was the Reverend Elias Prioleau, who came with the “great Huguenot immigration” about 1687; he died in 1699. Alluding to the Huguenots of Charles Town Bancroft said: “Their Church was in Charles Town and thither every Lord’s Day, gathering from their plantations upon the banks of the Cooper, and taking advantage of the ebb and flow of the tide, they might all regularly be seen, the parents with their children, whom no bigot could now wrest from them, making their way in light skiffs through scenes so tranquil, that silence was broken only by the rippling of oars and the hum of the flourishing village at the confluence of the rivers.” The first Huguenot Church was burned in 1740. The second church was also burned, in 1797. It was at once rebuilt and in 1845 it was remodeled to the form it now presents. “The church edifice is of great architectural beauty, being of pure Gothic, and its walls are adorned with mural tablets, commemorating the names and memories of the first Huguenot emigrants to Carolina.” It is the boast of this congregation that it has had a church on the same site for more years than has any other Charleston congregation. For more than one hundred and fifty years the services were in the French language.

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, 61 Church Street: When Charles Town on the peninsula was about three years old the first congregation of Baptists was formed. Some of these Baptists came from New England, with the Reverend William Screven, their pastor, and others came from England. Old records show that for several years the Baptists worshipped in the home of Mrs. William Chapman. Lady Blake, and her mother, Lady Axtell, were both Baptists and members of this congregation; their official rank lent strength to the church. William Elliott, a member, gave the site of the First Baptist Church in 1699. A wooden building was erected. The present building was on the site before 1826 and of it Mills says it showed “the best specimen of correct taste in architecture of the modern buildings in the city.” There are many old graves in its yard.

SCOTCH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 53 Meeting Street: Sprung from the White Meeting House, the First (Scotch) Presbyterian Church dates to 1731. The Reverend Hugh Stewart, a native Scot, was its first pastor. The present edifice was dedicated in 1814. It was severely damaged in the earthquake of August 31, 1886, but fully restored. It has one of the finest auditoriums in the country. When the Marquis of Lorne (later the Duke of Argyle) and his wife, the Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, were in Charleston in January, 1883, they visited the Scotch Church to inspect a memorial tablet to their cousin, Lady Anne Murray. The Duke of Sutherland also made a trip to Charleston expressly to see it. May 2, 1819, President James Monroe attended service in the Scotch Church, hearing a sermon by the Reverend Mr. Reid, the pastor. This church celebrated its bicentennial in March, 1931. During 100 years it has had three pastors—the Reverend John Forrest, D.D., forty-seven years, the Reverend W. Taliaferro Thompson, D.D., twenty years and the Reverend Alexander Sprunt, D.D., thirty-three years. Prominent Charlestonians sleep the sleep eternal in its yard.

TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH, 273 Meeting Street: As its congregation springs from the old Cumberland Church, the first Methodist group in Charleston (1786), Trinity may be called Charleston’s oldest Methodist congregation, but the building it now occupies was recently acquired from the Westminster Presbyterian Church (which combined the abandoned Third Presbyterian in Archdale Street and the Glebe Street Presbyterian Church). Through years Trinity Church was at 57 Hasell Street. Here the first church was erected before 1813. For a short time the church was used by an Episcopal congregation. The story goes that some of the congregation were not agreeable to occupancy by Episcopalians and sought legal counsel. They were informed that possession was “nine points in the law.” So, after an Episcopalian service, the Methodist brothers and sisters, when the congregation was dismissed, locked the doors from the inside, fastened the windows and mounted guard within the edifice, women assisting, until the case was returned in their favor. During this peaceful siege, a lad was born in the building; he years later became a bishop of the church. The Methodist church was planted in Charleston when Bishop Asbury and his associates came here in 1785. The first church building was erected in Cumberland Street in 1787, and within it the first Methodist Conference in South Carolina was held the same year. This building was destroyed in the fire of 1861. John and Charles Wesley had visited Charlestown in 1736. John Wesley preached in St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in 1737. The Wesleys came with General James Oglethorpe’s Georgia colonists. Charles Wesley was the general’s secretary and John Wesley was to be a missionary among the Indians.

ST. JOHN’S LUTHERAN CHURCH, 10 Archdale Street: The Lutheran congregation of St. John’s was organized in 1757 with the Reverend John George Fredichs as pastor. Lacking a building of their own the Lutherans used the French Huguenot Church. June 24, 1764, the first St. John’s was dedicated. The present brick building was dedicated January 18, 1818, the Reverend Dr. John Bachman, friend and associate of J. J. Audubon, the celebrated naturalist, being the pastor. This congregation was influential in the organization of Newberry College and the Lutheran Theological Seminary in South Carolina. Prominent persons of German origin or descent are buried in the yard. But the Lutheran story goes back to March, 1734. In his Sketch of St. John’s, the Reverend E. T. Horn says: “In March, 1734, while the ship containing the exiled Salzburgers lay off the harbor of Charleston, Governor Oglethorpe brought their Commissary, the Baron von Reck, and their pastor, the Reverend John Martin Bolzius, with him to the city. Here they found a few Germans, firm in their attachment to the Lutheran faith, and hungering and thirsting for the Holy Supper. In May, therefore, Bolzius was glad to accompany von Reck as far as Charleston, that he might minister to this little company, and on Sunday, May 26th, 1754, at five o’clock in the morning, most probably in the inn where Bolzius was stopping, he administered the Holy Communion to those whom on the day before he had examined and absolved according to the usages of the Lutheran Church.”