<p>Oak Plain Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian church located near Waycross, Sampson County, North Carolina, United States. It was built in 1859, and is a one-story, three-bay-by-three bay, temple form, Greek Revival style frame church. A steeple was added to the church building in 1976. Also on the property is the contributing church cemetery.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.</p><br>
<p>Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian church near Laurinburg, Scotland County, North Carolina. The congregation was founded in 1797, and the current meeting house was completed in early 1856. It is a two-story, gable front Greek Revival style frame building. The land on which the church stands was donated by planter and politician Duncan McFarland. The current building was constructed between 1853 and 1856 by black freedman Jackson Graham under contract. The church was used for a short period by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman as his headquarters in March 1865 prior to the Battle of Bentonville. It is the oldest church building in Scotland County.</p><br>
<p>The congregation belongs to the Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination.</p><br>
<p>The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.</p><br>
<p>Christ Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located at 412 Summit Avenue in Walnut Cove, Stokes County, North Carolina. It was built in 1886–1887, and is a one-story, Gothic Revival style board-and-batten frame building. It was moved to its present located in 1909. It features lancet-arched windows and a two-stage entrance tower and belfry. An addition was built in 1943.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.</p><br>
<p>Germanton Methodist Church and Cemetery is a historic Methodist church and cemetery located on Main Street at the junction of Main Street and Willow Street in Germanton, Stokes County, North Carolina. It was built in 1856, and is a simple two-story, rectangular brick building with a front gable roof, with Greek Revival detailing. It features a central three-part belfry atop the roof. The cemetery contains markers dated to the 1820s.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.</p><br>
<p>St. Philips Episcopal Church, also known as St. Philips Church, is a historic Episcopal church located on NC 65 and 8 and SR 1957 in Germanton, Stokes County, North Carolina. It was built in 1890, consecrated in 1894, and is a one-story, Gothic Revival style board-and-batten frame building. It features a two-stage corner tower and belfry.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.</p><br>
<h2>Move to Chapel Hill</h2><br>
<p>Due to the lack of a regular congregation to care for the building since the early 1980s, one or two annual services were held during Thanksgiving and at other special events from the 1990s to 2008. Endowments for the maintenance held by the Winston-Salem Foundation left by St. Philips former members helped fund the maintenance since the 1930s, as well as grants from the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, all of which was overseen by a Historic Property Committee of the Diocese. As the clergy who organized the committee that cared for St. Philips moved away and no one else stepped forward when Winston-Salem area Episcopal churches sought new leadership within Episcopal circles, that committee was dissolved by the diocese. The diocese considers the relocation of the building to be an instance of preservation via adaptive reuse.</p><br>
<p>In February 2012, the Winston-Salem Journal and WGHP that the diocese was planning to move the church to Chapel Hill, NC, where it will house the Episcopal Church of the Advocate. Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Diocese explained the rationale for the move in a public letter, stating “The St. Philip’s Episcopal Church building was constructed, and later consecrated and dedicated, as a house of prayer and worship for an Episcopal community of faith. The priority of the Diocese of North Carolina is for that purpose to be honored if at all possible. In this way, the building’s history and heritage will be most fully and faithfully preserved."</p><br>
<p>In response, a group of Stokes and Forsyth County citizens formed the nonprofit, in hopes of providing an alternative to removal of the church. Friends of St. Philips Church of Germanton hopes to continue the church&#39;s life in Germanton as a place of worship and reverent celebration of the arts. A separate group has also formed an ecumenical congregation interested in worshiping in the Episcopal tradition in Germanton was formed in June 2012 and currently meets weekly, but was unable to get permission to use the church building before it was removed in the fall of 2012.</p><br>
<p>Trinity Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located in Mount Airy, Surry County, North Carolina. It was built in 1896, and is a one-story, Gothic Revival-style masonry structure of uncoarsed granite rubble, locally sourced and donated by parishioner Thomas Woodruff, president of the North Carolina Granite Corporation at that time. The first service in the new building was held in July of 1896. Trinity was consecrated on October 13, 1900, and was dedicated to “…the Worship and Service of Almighty God, the administration of His Holy Sacraments, the Reading and Preaching of His Holy Word, and for the performance of All Holy Offices” by the Bishop of North Carolina, the Rt. Reverend Joseph Blount Cheshire. The main block of the church measures 20 feet by 50 feet. It has a small gable narthex and features lancet windows. It is the oldest church building in Mount Airy.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. It is located in the Mount Airy Historic District.</p><br>
<p>Lake Toxaway Methodist Church, also known as Methodist Episcopal Church South, is a historic Methodist church on Cold Mountain Road on the north side, 0.1 miles norwest of the junction with NC 281 in Lake Toxaway, Transylvania County, North Carolina. It was built in 1912, and is a small one-story, Late Gothic Revival style frame structure. It has a six-sided louvered bell tower and a tin roof.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.</p><br>
<p>St. Philip&#39;s Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located at 256 E. Main Street in Brevard, Transylvania County, North Carolina. It was designed by architect Louis Humbert Asbury and built in 1926. It is a tall one-story, Normanesque Revival style stone structure on a nave plan, with a narthex/tower on the main elevation and a chancel on the rear. It has a two-story bell tower and stained glass windows.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. It is located in the East Main Street Historic District.</p><br>
<p>St. James Episcopal Church and Rectory is a historic Carpenter Gothic-style Episcopal church and its rectory located in Kittrell, Vance County, North Carolina. It consists of a gable roof main block, three bays long, with a vestibule attached to the front and a small chapel added to the north end. Atop the roof is a belfry. It was built in 1872 and consecrated in 1878. The rectory is located directly behind the church and also has board and batten walls.</p><br>
<p>On December 14, 1978, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.</p><br>
<p>St. John&#39;s Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located on SR 1329 in Williamsboro, Vance County, North Carolina. It was built in 1773, and is a rectangular, seven bay long, frame church on a brick foundation. It has a gable roof and is sheathed in weatherboard. The church was restored in the 1950s.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.</p><br>
<p>St. Marys Chapel is a historic Episcopal chapel located at 900 Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. The chapel is on the grounds of St. Marys School, a college-preparatory boarding and day school founded in the 1840s. The 19th-century building was designed by architect Richard Upjohn in the Gothic Revival style and later expanded. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places  in 1970.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>The Episcopal School for Boys, established in 1833 by the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, was located on a 159-acre (64 ha) tract of land acquired from Colonel William Polk. Construction of the school buildings began in 1834, but by 1837, the school was closed due to financial problems. The property was purchased by businessman and politician Duncan Cameron, a wealthy and influential figure in Raleigh. The school was reopened on May 12, 1842, as St. Marys School for Girls, by Cameron and Reverend Aldert Smedes, the schools first rector and president. Religious services at St. Mary&#39;s were originally held in the parlor of Main Hall, now known as Smedes Hall. Services were later held in a different room equipped with pews and an organ.</p><br>
<p>In 1855, the Cameron family donated funds for the construction of a school chapel. Richard Upjohn, a prominent 19th century architect, was chosen to design the building. His notable works include Trinity Church in New York City and Christ Episcopal Church in Raleigh, both of which are National Historic Landmarks. Thomas Atkinson, the third Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina, visited the chapel for the first time in 1858 and said "I was gratified by its beauty, its appropriate arrangements, and its adaptation to its purpose." Transepts were added in 1905, though most of the chapel was left unchanged. The building is also designated a contributing property to Saint Marys Schools listing as a historic district on the NRHP.</p><br>
<h2>Architecture</h2><br>
<p>St. Mary&#39;s Chapel, a board-and-batten building with steep gable roof, was designed in the Gothic Revival style. When erected in 1855, the chapel was a rectangular building. The transepts added in 1905 gave the building a cruciform shape. The chapel facade features a lancet window on either side of the entrance. A hood above the entrance is supported by curved brackets while the hood gable features a trefoil design. Above the hood is a rose window topped by a louvered quatrefoil and cruciform finial at the roof. There are four triangular-headed lancet windows on the east and west (liturgical south and north) sides of the nave. The end of the east (liturgical south) transept is similar to the facade. Instead of a hood, this transept features a shed porch that connects to the Smedes building via a covered walkway. A large lancet window and two smaller ones are on the end of the west (liturgical north) transept. The north (liturgical east) side of the chapel features a large stained glass lancet window topped by a louvered quatrefoil.</p><br>
<p>Hebron Methodist Church is a historic Methodist church located near Oakville, Warren County, North Carolina. It was built about 1848–1849, and is a one-story, three bay by three bay, Greek Revival style frame church. It has a gable roof and rests on a stone foundation. It was enlarged in 1886. The building is attributed to local builder Jacob W. Holt .</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.</p><br>
<p>Valle Crucis Episcopal Mission, also known as Valle Crucis Conference Center, is a historic Episcopal mission church complex and national historic district located near Valle Crucis, Watauga County, North Carolina. The Gothic Revival style, gable-front stone Church of the Holy Cross was built about 1924. Other contributing resources are the church cemetery with the earliest burial dated to 1808, Auchmutv Hall dormitory , The Annex , "The Farm House" , Former Dairy Barn , Former Apple Barn , The Mission House , the Power Dam , the Valley / Field, and the Apple Orchard. The Valle Crucis Episcopal Mission was established by the Episcopal Church in 1844-1845.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. It is located in the Valle Crucis Historic District.</p><br>
<h2>Order of the Holy Cross</h2><br>
<p>Bishop Levi Silliman Ives of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina founded a religious community called the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross, at Valle Crucis in 1842. He had become more attracted to Roman Catholic teachings through the Oxford Movement in the Anglican Church. He wanted to form a monastery for Episcopalian men following the rule of St. Benedict in the Roman church. "So warm was the advocacy of the Oxford theories by Bishop Ives that he was arraigned for them before the convention of the Episcopal Church. His explanations were accepted for a time, but the "Brotherhood of the Holy Cross" was dissolved."</p><br>
<p>"There had been a slight abortive attempt at forming an American Order, under Bishop Ives, at Valle Crucis, North Carolina. But it had come to nothing."</p><br>
<p>The Rev. William Glenny French was the first Superior of the Order of the Holy Cross. Father William established a rigorous schedule for everyone in the order. Religious services were held three times a day, and each man and boy were required to do two hours of manual labor a day. He also worked as a missionary to the local mountain communities, holding services and sacraments to both the free and the slave populations. However, the practices of private confession and absolution were considered highly objectionable to the Episcopal practices of the day, and the society was abolished in 1849.</p><br>
<p>William West Skiles, a brother and deacon, helped start the religious community at Valle Crucis.</p><br>
<h2>Church of the Holy Cross</h2><br>
<p>The cornerstone of the Church of the Holy Cross was laid in 1924. The parquet floor was part of the original building, and was made from the end pieces of 2x4&#39;s and three inches deep. Each piece was dovetailed to interlock and to fit into a subfloor. There is nothing similar to this anywhere else in the Valley. The "Skiles Altar" is a Dutch cupboard that is hand carved with suitable inscriptions in honor of William West Skiles, a missionary brother of the Order of the Holy Cross. The altar was given in his memory by the Order of the Holy Cross in the 1950s or 1960s.</p><br>
<h2>Chapel of St. Anthony</h2><br>
<p>The Chapel of St Anthony is between the four hermitages at the Valle Crucis. These Hermitage (religious retreat) are small cabins designed for individuals desiring temporary renewal and reflection, and are open to artists, writers, educators and people of many faith backgrounds. The hermitages and the chapel create a small, isolated community separate from the rest of the mission, and the chapel has a hickory floor, a hand hewn altar, and local and custom artwork adorn the walls. The chapel is designed to facilitate quiet prayer, contemplation and spiritual direction.</p><br>
<h2>School</h2><br>
<p>As part of the Episcopal mission, a classical and theological school was established for the local children, including not only academic subjects but agricultural ones as well. The school was named the Classical and Agricultural School, and was the first one in the state to teach practical agriculture. One section of the school prepared boys for the ministry, and included at least one black man, William Alston, as a student, who finished in 1850, and went on to become an ordained minister in Philadelphia and New York.</p><br>
<p>The school closed in 1850 as the mission was abandoned. But in 1895, under Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire and the Rev. Milor Jones, the school was reopened with an eight-room, two story Mission House, which housed a teacher, another mission worker, and several boarding school students. The school continued to the 1990s, and boarded girls who learned home skills of milking, making butter, cooking, weaving, laundry work, sewing and embroidery. Boys attended day classes, and the student population increased by 1900 to one hundred, about half boys and half girls. Later on, Bishop Junius Horner insisted that the school operate a farm to support the mission. He acquired 525 acres of more land for the mission and he said that the school was "intended for the class of boys and girls who cannot take advantage of more expensive schools." By 1906 over a thousand fowls were raised in the chicken coops, and over a hundred acres were devoted to apple trees.</p><br>
<h2>Valle Crucis, Shawneehaw and Elk Park Turnpike</h2><br>
<p>The Valle Crucis, Shaneehaw and Elk Park Turnpike was built as a private toll road between 1891 and 1892, using only hand labor and without machinery. A particular four mile section is noted for its winding curves from the Valle Crucis Elementary School to Banner Elk, North Carolina, and for its scenery. Today, the older roadbed is part of North Carolina Highway 194.</p><br>
<p>Eureka United Methodist Church is a historic Methodist church located on Church Street in Eureka, Wayne County, North Carolina. It was built in 1884, and is a one-story, three bays wide and four bays deep, vernacular Carpenter Gothic style church. It has steeply pitched gable front roof and bell tower with lancet windows.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.</p><br>
<p>First Presbyterian Church, also known as the Church of Christ, Scientist, is a historic Presbyterian church located at 111 W. Ash Street in Goldsboro, Wayne County, North Carolina. It was built in 1856, and is a one-story, stuccoed, temple form Greek Revival architecture style church. It features an in antis portico with Tuscan order columns and low pitched roof with a painted wooden cupola. In 1953, the building was sold to the Christian Science Society.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.</p><br>
<p>St. Paul&#39;s Episcopal Church and Cemetery is a historic church on Cowles Street between Woodland Boulevard and West Street in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as a Historic Place in Wilkes County, North Carolina.</p><br>
<p>St. Paul&#39;s was built in 1848 and is the most important example of the Gothic Revival style in Wilkesboro as well as being a typical example of many American Episcopal churches built during the mid nineteenth century. A small brick structure, the church incorporates many Gothic features which bear similarity with those of English medieval parish churches; these include a steep gable roof, corner buttresses, lancet arched windows and doors, and plentiful Gothic interior detailing.</p><br>
<p>Wilkesboro Presbyterian Church is a historic church at 205 E. Main Street in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. It was built in 1849–50 in the Greek Revival style then popular, with a prominent tetrastyle portico. The brick exterior is otherwise plain, with a somewhat incongruous Victorian-era belfry over the portico. The interior is similarly plain, with plastered walls and a wood board ceiling. The church was built by a man named Dameron for $1,040.</p><br>
<p>The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It is located in the Downtown Wilkesboro Historic District.</p><br>
<p>Antioch Christian Church is a historic Disciples of Christ church located near Allendale, Allendale County, South Carolina. It was built about 1835, and is a one-story, meeting house style clapboard structure with a hipped roof. The church was renovated in 1976. Included within the acreage is a cemetery where many of Allendale&#39;s oldest families are buried.</p><br>
<p>Dr. William Erwin, the original owner of Erwinton, his wife and sister-in-law were all excommunicated from Kirkland Church in 1833 for their affiliation with other denominations. They then formed the second Christian congregation, the Disciples of Christ, in South Carolina. They held weekly meetings at Erwinton until 1835 when Antioch Christian Church was completed and dedicated.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.</p><br>
<p>Smyrna Baptist Church, also known as Kirkland Church, is a historic Baptist church located near Allendale, Allendale County, South Carolina. It was built in 1827, and is a one-story, meeting house style frame structure with a hipped roof. The front facade features a central Palladian window flanked by balancing nine-paneled entrance doors. A cemetery surrounds the church.</p><br>
<p>Dr. William Erwin, the original owner of Erwinton, his wife and sister-in-law were all excommunicated from Kirkland Church in 1833 for their affiliation with other denominations. They then formed the second Christian congregation, the Disciples of Christ, in South Carolina. They held weekly meetings at Erwinton until 1835 when the present meeting house was completed and dedicated as Antioch Christian Church.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.</p><br>
<p>Pelzer Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian church located at 13 Lebby Street in Pelzer, Anderson County, South Carolina. It was built in 1896, and is a rectangular Akron Plan church building with a gable front roof and sheathed in weatherboard. It features impressive stained and leaded glass windows and a Gothic arch entrance. A two-story, five-sided Sunday school classroom addition was built in 1905.</p><br>
<p>It was built in 1896 and added to the National Register in 1993.</p><br>
<p>Mizpah Methodist Church is a historic Methodist church located near Olar, Bamberg County, South Carolina. It was built in 1856, and is a frame church sheathed in weatherboard and includes Greek Revival and Gothic Revival architectural elements. Surrounding the church is the church cemetery, which contains gravestones and iron Maltese cross markers for a number of Confederate veterans.</p><br>
<p>It was built in 1856 and added to the National Register in 2000.</p><br>
<p>The Church of the Cross is a historic church on Calhoun Street in Bluffton, South Carolina.</p><br>
<p>It was built in 1857 and added to the National Register in 1975. It is currently in the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina and part of a larger Church of the Cross campus.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<h3>Earlier Congregations: 1767–1857</h3><br>
<p>Formal worship in the Bluffton area traces its roots to the establishment in 1767 of St. Luke&#39;s Parish, where a church was built near Pritchardville in 1787. Service on “The Bluff” of the May River first took place in the early 1830s. The young town of Bluffton was a summer resort for the area and inland planters and a stop on the ferry route between Savannah and Beaufort. By 1842, a chapel was built near the current location of The Church of the Cross.</p><br>
<h3>Antebellum Period: 1857–1861</h3><br>
<p>In July 1857, the present building was consecrated. Architect E. B. White designed a structure described then as a “handsome cruciform Gothic building”. Fanned arches with a look of palmettos top its mullioned windows that are framed by latticed shutters. The builders sent to England for the rose-colored glass in the windows. Inside, soft-pink-scored plaster enhances the warm light. Exposed pine timbers evoke power and stability.</p><br>
<h3>Federal Occupation: 1861–1865</h3><br>
<p>In 1863, Federal troops marched into Bluffton. burning most of the town. Although the church was spared, its congregation fled. Services on The Bluff resumed in 1870 when the Rev. E. E. Bellinger arrived and oversaw repairs.</p><br>
<h3>Post War: 1865–1975</h3><br>
<p>In 1892, the roof was replaced, but the deadly hurricane of 1898 damaged it and the rest of the building. By February 1900, all was repaired. Workers remodeled the chancel and fashioned from the original pulpit and desk a walnut altar with a stone top, a pulpit and a prayer desk. A chapel area was created in the Narthex, which was easy to heat for the sparse winter congregation.</p><br>
<h3>Current congregation: 1975–present</h3><br>
<p>The National Register of Historic Places has listed The Church of the Cross since 1975. In keeping with the church&#39;s rapid growth, members built the first rectory in 1986. With the continuing growth that the church has experienced in recent years, this building became the church business office in 2001.</p><br>
<p>In 1997, the Narthex wall was moved back to its original location, expanding nave seating for the growing congregation. Stairs now lead up to the renovated balcony above, which is home to the choir and the English pipe organ installed in 1999. In the two decades since The Church of the Cross grew from a mission to a parish, the number of parishioners increased twenty-fold, with in excess of seventy lay-led ministries added to serve the parish and surrounding communities.</p><br>
<p>Members of the parish founded Cross Schools Inc, which opened with seven first graders in 1998. Land was purchased for a school campus in 2000. The school continued to grow, adding a grade each year, in rented space until the construction of its first building in 2005. Today Cross Schools serves over 600 students ranging from twelve month old toddlers through eleventh grade with the first senior class being added in fall of 2023. A traditional chapel was added to the Cross Schools Campus in February 2020 where the Parish offices for the Church are now located, weekly chapels for the students are held and a traditional weekend service is also held. Phase VI of building on the Cross Schools campus was completed in December 2021 with the construction of a three-story building to house athletics and the high school.</p><br>
<p>The school is mentioned in the parish’s history because it functions in a partnership with the parish, and the parish uses space on the campus to conduct contemporary Sunday morning worship services.</p><br>
<h2>Worship</h2><br>
<p>The worship department is, like the church itself, rooted in the doctrine and practice of the Anglican Church, and based in a blend of the Book of Common Prayer and contemporary worship. Six services are held each week on two campuses:</p><br>
<p>Saturday, 5:28pm – Gracetime: Casual Eucharist Service</p><br>
<p>Sunday, 8:00am – Traditional Holy Eucharist</p><br>
<p>Sunday, 9:00am - Blended Holy Eucharist (located off-site at The Chapel on the Cross Schools Campus, 491 Buckwalter Parkway, Bluffton)</p><br>
<p>Sunday, 10:30am – CrossPoint: Modern/Contemporary (located off-site at Cross Schools Campus Gym, 495 Buckwalter Parkway, Bluffton)</p><br>
<p>Sunday, 10:00am – Blended Holy Eucharist</p><br>
<p>St. Helena Parish Chapel of Ease Ruins is a historic site in Frogmore, South Carolina on Saint Helena Island.</p><br>
<p>The Anglican chapel was constructed in 1740 by planters on Saint Helena Island as a chapel of ease for parishioners who had difficulty traveling to worship at the Parish Church of St. Helena in Beaufort, South Carolina. The ruins were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.</p><br>
<p>St. Lukes Church  is a historic church in rural Beaufort County, South Carolina located about four miles north of Pritchardville.</p><br>
<p>The original Episcopal congregation worshipped about a half mile away in a 1786 building built on land donated by John Bull. In 1824 the present building was constructed on land contributed by John Guerard, on part of what had been Bull Hill Plantation. In 1857, the Church of the Cross was built in nearby Bluffton, and services were discontinued around that time. In 1875, the church was sold to the Methodists, who use it to the present day.</p><br>
<p>The church is noted for its transitional architecture bridging the Georgian style of earlier South Carolina Episcopal churches and the rising Greek Revival style. It is one of the oldest churches in the state built for Episcopal worship, and one of the few with intact slave galleries.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.</p><br>
<p>Taveau Church, also known as Tavou Church, is a historic church located near Cordesville, Berkeley County, South Carolina. It was built about 1835, and is a small clapboard Classical Revival structure on a low brick pier foundation. It has a gable roof with a wooden bell tower. The front façade features a small pedimented portico supported by four slender wooden Doric columns.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register in 1978.</p><br>
<p>White Church, also known as The Brick Church, and formally as St. Thomas Episcopal Church and St. Thomas and St. Dennis Parish Church, is a historic church north of Cainhoy in Berkeley County, South Carolina.</p><br>
<p>It was built in 1819 as the parish church for St. Thomas and St. Dennis Parish and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, together with its vestry building and cemetery.</p><br>
<h2>Reconstruction era</h2><br>
<p>In October 1876 the church was the site of a planned Republican meeting, attended mostly by freedmen, which was interrupted by a large party of more than 150 white men, Democrats from Charleston who arrived by steamboat and demanded equal time. As this followed the massacre by whites of seven freedmen at Hamburg in Aiken County from July 4 to July 8, tensions were high. While efforts were made to have both sides lay down their arms, the tensions broke out into shooting, which resulted in the deaths of one African-American man and three to six whites.</p><br>
<p>It was one of several events during the campaign season in South Carolina in which violence was used to disrupt Republican meetings and suppress black voting, particularly in Edgefield County, which had a Republican/black majority. Typical of the times was a plan for Edgefield County by veteran General Martin W. Gary, who listed numerous activities to take place over several months by rifle clubs to disrupt Republican voting.</p><br>
<p>Central Baptist Church is a historic Southern Baptist church at 26 Radcliffe Street in Charleston, South Carolina.</p><br>
<p>The Central Baptist Church was completed in</p><br>
<p>1893 and is considered the first church in Charleston founded and</p><br>
<p>constructed entirely by African-Americans. The structure reflects</p><br>
<p>Carpenter Gothic and Italianate influences and remains in excellent</p><br>
<p>condition. Perhaps the most significant features of the structure are</p><br>
<p>the large folk-art murals portraying biblical scenes including the</p><br>
<p>Crucifixion, the Ascension, and the Resurrection of Christ which</p><br>
<p>date back to 1915. Architect, John Pearson Hutchinson Sr., was hired as a negro carpenter, building</p><br>
<p>contractor, and non-licensed architect. He was also a Deacon of the church.</p><br>
<p>It was built in 1891 and added to the National Register in 1977.</p><br>
<p>The Thirty-third Street Bridge in Philadelphia carries Thirty-third Street  over the former course of Master Street in the Brewerytown section of North Philadelphia, near Fairmount Park. The bridge was built in 1901 with an unusual skewed arch, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. Ashlar, or dressed stone, covers the exterior of the arch, but the unusual skewed ribs are made of brick. The underpass is now inside an industrial area and normally closed even to foot traffic. The tracks of the former Pennsylvania Railroad are located just to the north and pass under a large modern bridge on Thirty-third Street.</p><br>
<p>Saint Andrews Parish Church is located in Charleston, South Carolina, along the west side of the Ashley River. Built in 1706 it is the oldest surviving church building south of Virginia. Its historic graveyard dates from the churchs establishment. Expanded in 1723 into the shape of a cross, the church is the only remaining colonial cruciform church in South Carolina. In 1973 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Old St. Andrew&#39;s, as it is commonly called, remains an active place of worship and is affiliated with the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina and the Anglican Church in North America.</p><br>
<h2>18th Century: Colonial Era through the American Revolution</h2><br>
<h3>Establishment</h3><br>
<p>The Church Act of 1706 established the Church of England as the official state supported religion in the Carolina colony, created the parish system, with both secular and ecclesiastical functions, named ten parishes within the boundaries of the three existing counties (Craven, Berkeley, and Colleton), and designated ten Anglican churches to serve the inhabitants of these parishes. St. Andrew&#39;s Parish Church was named to serve residents along the Ashley River.</p><br>
<p>St. Andrews Parish was approximately 280 square miles: 40 miles north-to-south and 7 miles east-to-west. It was bordered on the south by Folly Island and the Atlantic Ocean, to the east by St. James Goose Creek Parish (through the middle of todays Charleston International Airport), to the west by Rantowles Creek and St. Pauls Parish, and to the north into todays Dorchester County. The area where the English settlers first landed in 1680, today called Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site, is located in St. Andrew&#39;s Parish.</p><br>
<p>Residents in the northern part of the parish soon found it too difficult to travel to other parts of the parish, so in 1717 the parish was cut in half. The northern half became the parish of St. Georges, Dorchester, with its southern boundary about a mile south of Middleton Place. The new St. Andrews Parish consisted of today&#39;s West Ashley and James Island and operated as a governmental jurisdiction until 1865 when it became part of the Charleston District.</p><br>
<h3>The Early Church</h3><br>
<p>St. Andrew&#39;s Parish Church was built in 1706. It was forty feet long and twenty-five feet wide, built of brick, with a roof of pine, and had two doors and five small, square windows. A wider "great" door was used by the gentry and faced the river. A narrower "small" door was used by commoners and clergy and faced west. It is likely that enslaved Africans built the church. A graveyard of seven acres surrounded the church.</p><br>
<p>The first rector was Rev. Alexander Wood. He arrived in 1708 and died two years later. He was succeeded by Rev. Ebenezer Taylor (1712–17), whose tenure was marked by turmoil among his churchwardens, vestry, and parishioners. Taylor was a moderate Presbyterian minister who was recruited by Rev. Gideon Johnston, the Anglican commissary (the Bishop of Londons personal representative), to become an ordained Anglican minister. Johnston presented Taylor to the vestry of St. Andrews Parish Church as Wood&#39;s successor. His idea was that Taylor could siphon off Presbyterians to the Church of England in this majority Presbyterian parish. The vestry reluctantly accepted him as rector.</p><br>
<p>Taylor did not lure Presbyterians to the Anglican fold. In fact, his stubborn personality and unfamiliarity with Anglican customs alienated the very Anglicans he was called to serve. His work among the enslaved on parish plantations, a ministry which few ministers undertook at the time, was another sore point. During his tenure, Indian raids during the Yamasee War occurred almost as far as the Ashley River. In long letters to London, Taylor complained bitterly of the treatment he received from his parishioners. Toward the end of his tenure the churchwardens and vestry nailed the church windows shut and locked the door to prevent him from entering the church and conducting worship services. In 1717 Taylor was banished to North Carolina, where he died three years later.</p><br>
<h3>Stability and Expansion</h3><br>
<p>Rev. William Guy succeeded Ebenezer Taylor in 1718, serving until his death in 1750. His thirty-two-year tenure was one of the longest in the church&#39;s history and was even more remarkable in an age where frequent clergy turnover from illness, death, or transfer was the norm. If Ebenezer Taylor was disliked by his parish, William Guy was beloved.</p><br>
<p>Reverend Guy chronicled parish life in the many letters he sent to the SPG. He began the parish&#39;s first register, the official repository of births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths, when churches and not government agencies maintained vital statistics. He established a chapel on James Island to make it easier for parishioners to worship closer to home. He was, however, unsuccessful in ministering to the enslaved on parish plantations.</p><br>
<p>The parishs twenty-six-acre glebe, where the minister lived and raised crops and livestock, was one of the smallest of all South Carolina parishes. During Guys tenure it was expanded to eighty-three acres. In 1750 a small, wooden parsonage badly in need of repair was replaced with a spacious, two-story brick house.</p><br>
<p>As more people settled the Ashley River area, the 1706 church became too small to accommodate even half of those who wanted to worship there. Beginning in 1723 and continuing for more than a decade, the small, rectangular church was expanded into the shape of a cross. The expansion tripled the floor space of the existing church. Features of the 1723 expansion that visitors see today include the chancel and transept at the east end, compass-headed windows recessed into the walls, the barrel-vaulted ceiling over the crossing of the aisles, and three equal-size doors. The pine roof was replaced by one of cypress. Cedar pews were added. The exterior brick was roughcast or stuccoed to mask the differences between the old and new brick and emulate a grander stone facade. A steeple at the west end was planned but whether it was ever realized is unknown. Although Anglican churches were supported by public taxes, these were never enough. The expansion required several subscriptions by parishioners to pay for the project. The finished church conveyed a simple elegance or "a quaint severity combined with great charm". The expanded St. Andrew&#39;s "reflected many of the essential design features that characterized eighteenth-century church architecture in South Carolina."</p><br>
<h3>Prosperity</h3><br>
<p>The flourishing condition of St. Andrew&#39;s Parish Church was the result of a booming economy, primarily the cultivation of rice. None of this prosperity would have been possible without the slave labor system the British imported from Barbados and the West Indies. As early as 1705 there were about 130 white families along the Ashley River and 150 enslaved people. In 1728 Reverend Guy estimated that there were 800 free whites and 1,800 enslaved blacks in the parish.</p><br>
<p>William Guy was succeeded by Rev. Charles Martyn in 1752. He also had a long tenure, resigning in 1770 to return to England due to ill health. The parishs prosperity continued under his tenure with the addition of a second significant cash crop. The cultivation of indigo was perfected by Eliza Lucas Pinckney at her fathers plantation on Wappoo Creek in St. Andrews Parish. The combination of rice and indigo made the parish one of the wealthiest areas in all of colonial British North America. More enslaved labor was needed to fuel this engine, and by 1777 the parishs enslaved population reached 3,460.</p><br>
<h3>Fire and Rebuilding</h3><br>
<p>In the midst of this prosperity, a devastating fire struck the church in the early 1760s. It was severe enough that anything made of wood would have burned, leaving the 1706 and 1723 walls standing. The church was thoroughly restored and reopened in 1764. The work was funded by parishioner pew subscriptions.</p><br>
<p>Features of the 1764 rebuilding include the magnificent reredos or altarpiece at the east end, the balcony at the west end, the stone and tile paver floor throughout the church, and the red-and-tan tile floor beneath the altar. The large east-end window behind the altar was not replaced after the fire, and the wall bricked in and reredos added. Its four tablets depict the Lords Prayer, Ten Commandments, and Apostles Creed. Such an expensive adornment in a simple country church was an expensive undertaking that only a wealthy parish could afford. A balcony which had originally been installed in 1754 was rebuilt after the fire for people who could not afford to buy their seating. The stone and tile paver floor would be removed in 1855, buried under a new stone floor, and not resurface until 1969. The red-and-tan tile floor in the altar area is possibly of Dutch origin.</p><br>
<h3>American Revolution</h3><br>
<p>After Charles Martyn left for England, he was succeeded by Rev. Thomas Panting (1770–71) and Rev. Christopher Ernst Schwab (1771–73), a Bavarian from Franconia. It would be fourteen years until Schwab was replaced, after the American Revolution.</p><br>
<p>The Revolution affected the church, parsonage, and chapel on James Island. In March 1780 British and Hessian troops were met with colonial cannon fire at Church Creek, just south of the parish church. British General Alexander Leslie directed Hessian Captain Johann Ewald to take a detachment of men across the creek and silence the rebels. Otherwise, cannon would be brought up which might have destroyed the church. Ewald and his men became mired in the mud, which gave the colonials time to escape. The British and Hessians camped in the churchyard overnight. They later proceeded north to Drayton Hall and Magnolia Gardens, where they crossed the Ashley River, marched down the peninsula and captured the city of Charles Town. The war left a bitter legacy in St. Andrew&#39;s Parish. The parish church was "much Injured and pulled to pieces by the British Army," the parsonage was burned,</p><br>
<h2>19th Century: Antebellum Era, Civil War, and Its Aftermath</h2><br>
<h3>Stagnation and Economic Decline</h3><br>
<p>Parishioners set about to restore their church, rebuild the parsonage, and hire a rector. In 1785 the new state House and Senate incorporated the Vestries and Churchwardens of the Parish of St. Andrew and gave them authority over a wide range of issues affecting the parish. A new rector was hired in 1787, the last from England. Rev. Thomas Mills had sailed to Charleston, fleeing his homeland after his staunch support of American independence left him with little opportunity there. His twenty-nine-year tenure (1787-1816) was the only stability in parish leadership until the 1840s.</p><br>
<p>Prewar prosperity was followed by economic stagnation, with a significant decline in rice cultivation and low-quality indigo becoming noncompetitive in world markets. St. Andrew&#39;s, as with other rural parishes, continued to heavily rely on African American slave labor, with 90 percent of the population enslaved. As one observer noted in the 1840s, "for a long time the Ashley river plantations were the most highly appreciated & productive lands in the colony. Now these lands are almost left untilled.... & the whole presents a melancholy sense of abandonment, desolation, & ruin."</p><br>
<p>St. Andrews was without another regular minister for eleven of the next thirteen years. The church building was used as a polling place until the 1830s. Rev. Joseph Gilbert was elected rector in 1824 but died the same year. He was followed by Rev. Paul Trapier (1829–35), whose privileged city upbringing made it difficult to adapt to this difficult, rural posting, and Rev. Dr. Jasper Adams (1835–38), former president of the College of Charleston, who likely used his time at St. Andrews to complete his only book, Elements of Moral Philosophy. The chapel on James Island became its own church, St. James, in 1831. In the first half of the century, a white marble tablet memorializing Jonathan Fitch (J. F.) and Thomas Rose (T. R.), the 1706 church building supervisors, was placed over the south exterior door.</p><br>
<h3>Antebellum Ministry to the Enslaved</h3><br>
<p>Rev. James Stuart Hanckel served St. Andrew&#39;s as deacon and priest from 1838 until 1851. He ministered to his small, white congregation in the parish church during the cooler months (November through May), when the threat of disease was less. Needed church repairs were completed in 1840, and the first confirmation class was held in 1843.</p><br>
<p>Soon after he arrived, Hanckel began a regular ministry to the enslaved, the first focused attempt at St. Andrews to reach out to African Americans on parish plantations. The antebellum parish register, begun by Paul Trapier in 1830, included many slave baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and burials during Hanckels tenure. Three plantation chapels were constructed for religious instruction and worship. Two were built in 1845: Middleton Chapel in the southern part of the parish on Nathaniel Russell Middletons plantation and Magwoods Chapel in the center of the parish on Simon J. Magwoods plantation. To the north, John Grimké Drayton, a candidate for Holy Orders, added Magnolia Chapel at his plantation Magnolia-on-the-Ashley in 1850. By the end of Hanckels tenure, there were twice as many black communicants in the parish as white.</p><br>
<p>John Grimké Drayton succeeded Stuart Hanckel in late 1851. Drayton, a wealthy plantation owner, renowned horticulturalist, and dedicated Episcopal priest, served St. Andrews for forty years (1851–91), the longest tenure in the churchs history. He witnessed the last of the antebellum years, the Civil War and its devastation, and slow recovery. He continued ministering to the enslaved and took what Stuart Hanckel had begun to new levels. From 1851 to 1859 black communicants outnumbered whites five-to-one.</p><br>
<h3>1855 Restoration</h3><br>
<p>Early in Draytons tenure the parish church had fallen into a "very dilapidated" state. In 1855 it was thoroughly restored under the leadership of Col. William Izard Bull of Ashley Hall plantation. Much of the look of todays church dates from Bulls restoration. The colonial high-backed pews had deteriorated past the point of saving, so Bull installed more fashionable low-backed pews, each with a latching door. He inscribed his pew plan in the plaster on the north wall of the nave. It was covered up and not discovered until almost a century later. The pulpit and reading desk were moved to their current location. Cast iron railings were installed around the pulpit, desk, and altar, likely to match the look of the fonts pedestal. The stone and tile floor was replaced with large, square sandstone pavers, with the earlier flooring buried in the dirt underneath. Bull placed memorial tablets to his ancestors, the Izards and Bulls, on the southeast wall of the chancel. Scenery and cherubs which had been previously painted on the walls, "all to the horror of grandma and the other ladies", were removed.</p><br>
<h3>Civil War</h3><br>
<p>Reverend Drayton remained in the parish during the Civil War. He also served St. John in the Wilderness Church in Flat Rock, North Carolina, as rector during the summer. He gave his last worship service at St. Andrew&#39;s on February 12, 1865, before he left for Flat Rock. Confederate forces had surrendered and had left the city and its environs unprotected from invading Union troops and freed slaves who accompanied them.</p><br>
<p>Drayton returned from Flat Rock to find his home at Magnolia burned but his magnificent gardens spared. He took residence at the Grimké family home on the peninsula in Charleston. (John was born a Grimké but had changed his surname to Drayton in 1836 so that he could inherit Magnolia.) Union forces appropriated St. Andrew&#39;s Parish Church as a public meeting and polling place. Drayton could not gain access to his own church.</p><br>
<p>A postwar report on the condition of St. Andrew&#39;s Parish painted a grim picture. The church had survived "but in the midst of a desert. Every residence but one, on the west bank of Ashley River was burnt simultaneously with the evacuation of Charleston, by the besieging forces of James Island." The observer continued: "The demon of civil war was let loose on this Parish. But three residences exist between the Ashley and Stono rivers.... It must be many years before the congregation can return in sufficient numbers to rebuild their homes and restore the worship of God."</p><br>
<h3>Postwar Ministry to the Freedmen</h3><br>
<p>After the war the now freed black people abandoned their previously white church connections in "a black exodus of Biblical proportions." Nowhere in South Carolina did the freedmen reunite with their white prewar minister, except with Rev. John Grimké Drayton in St. Andrew&#39;s Parish. Walking through the parish in 1867 he met a group of freedmen who asked him to restart religious services. This seemingly benign request was in fact monumental.</p><br>
<p>Drayton began meeting with his black congregants at the three plantation chapels. He preached to "overflowing congregations" and conducted worship on the first, third, and fifth Sundays from November through May. Black communicants in St. Andrew&#39;s Parish now outnumbered whites eight-to-one.</p><br>
<h3>Church Reopening, Earthquake, and Decline</h3><br>
<p>Reverend Drayton reopened the parish church eleven years after the Civil War ended, on March 26, 1876. Worshippers arrived from Charleston by steamer to Bees Ferry and then walked to the church. Funding for needed repairs likely came from income from land sales for phosphate mining along the Ashley River, which brought a short-lived economic boom to the area. Ten years after the reopening, the church was severely damaged by the Great Charleston Earthquake of 1886. Its epicenter was located just seven miles north of the parish church near Middleton Place. As Reverend Draytons health continued to deteriorate, his black congregation assumed new leadership. Magwoods Chapel, the focus of worship and instruction, was given its own name: St. Andrews Church, Charleston County, later known as St. Andrews Mission Church. John Grimké Drayton died on April 2, 1891, at Linwood, his daughter Julia&#39;s home in Summerville.</p><br>
<h2>20th Century: Dormancy and Resurgence</h2><br>
<h3>Vacancy and Historical Curiosity</h3><br>
<p>Reverend Drayton was not replaced, and the church became dormant for the next fifty-seven years. The wardens and vestry tried to maintain the building and keep vandals out. After three of them died in close succession, the remaining leaders relinquished control of the church in 1916 to the Diocese of South Carolina. The diocese made needed repairs to the building over many years. From 1923 to 1946 Rev. Wallace Martin held occasional services in the church. The building became a historical curiosity; numerous postcards depicting the vacant Old St. Andrews were produced during this time. In 1937 the Hanahans of Millbrook plantation installed the cherub and decorative grapevines over the reredos at the east end as a gift commemorating a family wedding. In 1940 Old St. Andrews was documented and photographed, and elements of the church were illustrated as part of the federal government&#39;s Historic American Buildings Survey.</p><br>
<h3>Reopening after World War II</h3><br>
<p>With Old St. Andrews closed, Episcopalians had organized a new church, All Saints Mission, closer to where they lived, near the Ashley River along the Savannah Highway/Folly Road area. They wanted to build a new church, since reopening the dilapidated colonial church many miles away seemed overwhelming.</p><br>
<p>Soon afterwards termites were found in the walls of the church and the building was closed for repair for almost two years. Old plaster was stripped off the walls and ceiling to get to the wooden studs and trusses. Colonel William Izard Bull&#39;s plan of the new pews he installed in 1855 was discovered on the north wall of the nave, and the electricians who installed the lighting etched their names above it. Instead of being preserved, the artifact was covered by the Hastie memorial.</p><br>
<p>Paying for ongoing repairs became a never-ending task. The glebe which dated to colonial times was sold. The church held a seemingly endless number of fundraisers, the most enduring of which is Tea Room. A Gift Shop offering handmade wares and foods was added. Tea Room and Gift Shop has remained a fixture on the church calendar for more than seventy years.</p><br>
<h3>Growth and Uncertainty</h3><br>
<p>Rev. Lynwood Magee arrived in 1952 and led the church during its most explosive period of growth, the baby boom of the fifties and sixties. During his tenure the number of baptized members and communicants quadrupled. The church regained full parish status in 1955, having been admitted to the diocese as an organized mission after the reopening. A simple, concrete block parish house was built in 1953, then expanded twice (1956 and 1962) to accommodate an ever-growing number of parishioners and Sunday school students.</p><br>
<p>Reverend Magee left Old St. Andrews in 1963 for All Saints Church in Florence, South Carolina. This period was marked by decreasing financial commitments due to donor fatigue, apathy, and internal difficulties.</p><br>
<p>The church received a needed facelift in 1969. The exterior walls were repaired and repainted. The interior walls and pews were painted light blue. The sandstone paver floor, which had been set in the dirt, had become unstable and needed leveling and mortaring. When the floor was taken up, the 1764 paver and tile floor was found underneath it. The old floor was more attractive and durable, so it was set in the current pattern and mortared into place. The cross of St. Andrew (an X) was placed at the crossing of the aisles and the west end.</p><br>
<p>The tenure of Rev. John Gilchrist (1970–81) brought renewed energy to the church. The front of the parish house was expanded to include a large seating area and expanded kitchen. In 1973 Old St. Andrews was placed on the National Register of Historical Places and celebrated the 25th anniversary of the 1948 reopening. Parishioners marked the national bicentennial by wearing period dress. Gilchrist guided both the church and the diocese through the Episcopal Churchs difficult revision of the Book of Common Prayer. When the revised book took effect in 1979 a number of dissatisfied parishioners left and founded St. Timothy&#39;s Anglican Catholic Church nearby.</p><br>
<h3>Confidence Regained</h3><br>
<p>The tenure of rector George Tompkins (1987-2006) brought needed stability. Just two years after he arrived, Hurricane Hugo struck Charleston. It spared the parish church, but caused heavy damage to the parish house, toppled more than 200 trees in the churchyard, and upended gravestones and coping. Clearing the debris and restoring the building and grounds took more than a year. The blue walls and pews of the church were repainted white. The education wing of Magee House, built in 1963, received much-needed repairs. Paying for these projects put a constant strain on parish finances. In 1990 the main dining room of the parish house was named Gilchrist Hall after Rev. John Gilchrist. Two years later the parish house was named Magee House in honor of Rev. Lynwood Magee. By the end of the nineties Old St. Andrew&#39;s had 701 members, 21 percent more than at the beginning of the decade.</p><br>
<h2>21st Century: Continued Growth and Renewal</h2><br>
<h3>Great Restoration and 300th Anniversary</h3><br>
<p>As the millennium approached, the vestry began planning for the church&#39;s 300th anniversary in 2006. Structural engineers were hired to inspect the building. What they found was disturbing. Differential building settlement had caused the gabled walls to tilt outward. The 1764 roof rafters were too small, and some of the collar ties had pulled away from them.</p><br>
<p>The estimated cost of these and other needed repairs came to $1.2 million. Parishioner and outside gifts amounted for about 40 percent of the total, with the rest financed. The church was closed for about a year, beginning in April 2004. Virtually the entire building was restored. The church reopened on Easter Day 2005, fifty-seven years after the church was reopened in 1948.</p><br>
<p>The church celebrated its tercentennial with a year-long series of activities in 2005-6. Reverend Tompkins, who had been battling rheumatoid arthritis, resigned in March 2006. He was succeeded by Rev. Marshall Huey, who was elected the church&#39;s 19th rector and installed on November 5, 2006.</p><br>
<h3>Parish Life</h3><br>
<p>The parishs most immediate financial need was paying off the $729,000 restoration mortgage, which it did in just six years. The relationship between Old St. Andrews and St. Andrews Mission Church, founded in 1845 as Magwoods Chapel, was strengthened through the intentional dialogue between Huey and Rev. James Yarsiah and then Rev. Jimmy Gallant of St. Andrews Mission. The first Easter Sunrise service was held at Drayton Hall in conjunction with St. Andrews Mission Church to more closely tie the churches to the wider West Ashley community. It was later moved to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, where it continues today. In 2008 a Family Service, which augments the two other Sunday worship services, was begun to appeal to families with young children. Missionary efforts expanded, including work in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, and West Ashley. The Old St. Andrew&#39;s Trust, which provides the church long-term financial stability, was established through a generous bequest from Dr. Mary B. Wilson. In 2020 microphones and cameras were installed unobtrusively along the walls of the church and hardware and software installed in the balcony to livestream worship services during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. The following year the education wing of Magee House was significantly renovated.</p><br>
<h3>Denominational Affiliation</h3><br>
<p>In 2012 Old St. Andrews and other churches in the diocese found themselves entangled in legal controversy after the Diocese of South Carolina disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church. After a seven-week period of discernment in early 2013, parishioners of Old St. Andrews voted three-to-one to align with the diocese and leave the national church. The parishs vote mirrored that of the majority of the diocese, eighty percent of whom eventually left the Episcopal Church. In 2017 the diocese and with it Old St. Andrews joined the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).</p><br>
<p>For a decade litigation ensued between the Episcopal Church and the disaffiliated diocese and the individual churches that left with it over the question of church property ownership. After a number of court rulings and appeals, on May 24, 2023, the South Carolina Supreme Court denied an appeal by the Episcopal Church that challenged a prior court ruling that Old St. Andrew&#39;s, and not the Episcopal Church, owns its property.</p><br>
<h2>Rectors</h2><br>
<p>1 Alexander Wood 1708-10</p><br>
<p>2 Ebenezer Taylor 1712-17</p><br>
<p>3 William Guy 1718-50</p><br>
<p>4 Charles Martyn 1753-70</p><br>
<p>5 Thomas Panting 1770-71</p><br>
<p>6 Christopher Ernst Schwab 1771-73</p><br>
<p>7 Thomas Mills 1787-1816</p><br>
<p>8 Joseph M. Gilbert 1824</p><br>
<p>9 Paul Trapier 1830-35</p><br>
<p>10 Jasper Adams 1835-38</p><br>
<p>11 James Stuart Hanckel 1841-49, 1849-51</p><br>
<p>12 John Grimké Drayton 1851-91</p><br>
<p>13 Lynwood Cresse Magee 1955-63</p><br>
<p>14 John L. Kelly 1963-66</p><br>
<p>15 Howard Taylor Cutler 1967-70</p><br>
<p>16 John Ernest Gilchrist 1970-81</p><br>
<p>17 Geoffrey Robert Imperatore 1982-85</p><br>
<p>18 George Johnson Tompkins III 1987-2006</p><br>
<p>19 Stewart Marshall Huey Jr. 2006-</p><br>
<p>Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church located at 369 Drayton Street in McClellanville, South Carolina. It was built around 1872, and is a one-story, rectangular frame vernacular Gothic Revival church. It has a pedimented gable-front roof that supports a square-based steeple. A cemetery is on the property. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.</p><br>
<p>Christ Episcopal Church is a church located in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.</p><br>
<h2>History</h2><br>
<p>Christ Church parish was one of ten established in South Carolina under the Church Act of 1706, an act of the British Parliament. As such the parish also served as a civil administrative district. A small wooden building was built on this site in 1708, but was accidentally destroyed by a fire in 1725. The current rectangular brick Colonial building with its hipped roof dates back to 1726. A cupola added in the 1786 restoration following damage from the fire set by the retreating British forces. The cemetery contains graves dating back to the mid-1700s.</p><br>
<p>The cupola was replaced in 1835 and at that time the entrance was moved when the north door was converted to a window. The building was a voting place until 1865. Towards the close of the American Civil War, Union cavalry from the 21st United States Colored Infantry Regiment used the church as a stable and the interior was gutted.</p><br>
<p>The building was rebuilt by 1874, and in 1961, wings containing a sacristy and a rector&#39;s office were added.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The active congregation in 2012 left the Episcopal Church and in 2017 joined the Anglican Church in North America. In 2022, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that according to the Dennis Canon of the Episcopal Church, the parish property was held in trust for the Diocese of South Carolina, and the ACNA church was required to vacate the property at the end of August 2022. The historic Episcopal congregation returned to its historic church at the beginning of September 2022.</p><br>
<p>Edisto Island Baptist Church is a historic African-American Baptist church on Edisto Island in Charleston County, South Carolina. Built in 1818, it is a two-story church sheathed in beaded weatherboard with a medium pitched gable roof. An addition doubling its size was completed about 1865, and a two-story pedimented portico was added in 1880.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.</p><br>
<p>Edisto Island Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian church on Edisto Island, South Carolina.</p><br>
<p>The congregation was founded in 1685 and the current church building was constructed in 1831. The church&#39;s burying ground is adjacent to the building. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 24, 1971. The congregation is a member of the Presbyterian Church (USA).</p><br>
<p>John&#39;s Island Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian church located on Johns Island, Charleston County, South Carolina. It was founded in 1719 by Rev Archibald Stobo, a Church of Scotland minister. It was remodeled in 1792 and extended in 1823. It is a T-shaped, frame meeting house-style church sheathed in clapboard.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.</p><br>
<p>St. David&#39;s Church and Cemetery is a historic church and cemetery on Church Street in Cheraw, South Carolina.</p><br>
<p>It was built in 1770 and added to the National Register in 1971.</p><br>
<h2>Notable burials</h2><br>
<p>Alexander Gregg (1819–1893), a native of this area and the first bishop of Texas and author of History of the Old Cheraws.</p><br>
<p>James McCutchen McJames (1873–1901), early professional baseball player.</p><br>
<p>William P. Pollock (1870–1922), member of the S.C. General Assembly and USA Senator from South Carolina</p><br>
<p>Capt. Moses Rogers (d. 1821) commanded the SS Savannah on its 1819 voyage when it became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.</p><br>
<p>William Francis Stevenson (1861–1942) USA Representative from South Carolina.</p><br>
<p>Catfish Creek Baptist Church is a historic Southern Baptist church located near Latta, Dillon County, South Carolina. It was built in 1883, and is a pine structure measuring 60 feet long and 40 feet wide. The front façade features brick steps and brick pedimented portico with four supporting columns added in 1970. It is the oldest church congregation in Dillon County, dating to 1802.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.</p><br>
<p>St. Paul&#39;s Methodist Church is a historic Methodist church off SC 9 in Little Rock, Dillon County, South Carolina. It was built about 1871, and is constructed of heart pine weatherboarding in a transitional Italianate Victorian vernacular style. A bell tower with octagonal steeple dominates the exterior of the church. Surrounding the church is the cemetery where many early church members are buried.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the USA National Register of Historic Places in 1977.</p><br>
<p>Appleby&#39;s Methodist Church is a historic Methodist church located near St. George, Dorchester County, South Carolina. It was probably built about 1840–1850, and is a one-story, wooden meeting house in the Greek Revival style. The building is clapboard and the medium gable roof is covered with asphalt shingles. Also on the property is a contributing late 19th-century cemetery.</p><br>
<p>It was built in 1840 and added to the National Register in 1978.</p><br>
<p>Cypress Methodist Camp Ground is a historic Methodist camp meeting in Ridgeville, Dorchester County, South Carolina. Cypress Camp Ground was functional as early as 1794, and an adjacent cemetery contains graves from the early 1800s. The campground is in the general shape of a rectangle of 34 tents, or cabins, made of rough-hewn lumber. These cabins, rectangular shaped, are generally 1 1/2-stories and contain earthen floors.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.</p><br>
<p>Old White Meeting House Ruins and Cemetery is a historic site near Summerville, Dorchester County, South Carolina. The meeting house was built about 1700, burned during the American Revolution in 1781, rebuilt in 1794, then reduced to ruins by the Charleston earthquake of 1886. The extant ruins include portions of each cornerthe largest approximately 9’ highand significant remnants of the foundation of walls. Also on the property is a contributing cemetery.</p><br>
<p>The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.</p><br>
<p>Horn Creek Baptist Church is a historic Baptist church in Edgefield, South Carolina. The congregation was founded in 1768 and the current building was constructed in 1790 and remains one of the oldest buildings in the county. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.</p><br>
<h2>History of Horn&#39;s Creek Church and its Restoration</h2><br>
<p>Founded in 1768 just a few years after the first settlers arrived in Edgefield County, Horns Creek Baptist Church was the result of the evangelical mission of the Reverend Daniel Marshall (1707-1784), the renowned Baptist divine who had founded churches in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. In the years following its founding, as the population of the Horns Creek neighborhood grew and its agricultural economy boomed, this Church became one of the largest and most influential churches in the county, providing a place of worship for both whites and African Americans. Moreover, as one of the “mother” churches of the region, it spawned a number of important “daughter” churches throughout the county.</p><br>
<p>By the closing decades of the 19th century, the Horns Creek lands, characterized by dramatic topography with high ridges and deep valleys, had begun to wear out from soil exhaustion and erosion, causing many residents to move out. This gradual depopulation of the neighborhood continued for many decades and was rapidly accelerated by the coming of the boll weevil in the 1920s. In 1942, the few remaining members of Horns Creek Baptist Church met and decided to discontinue services and to turn the property over to the Edgefield Baptist Association for safe-keeping. For the next sixty years the Horn&#39;s Creek Church property was under the control of the Association.</p><br>
<p>In 1976, the county made the restoration of Horn&#39;s Creek Church its Bicentennial Project. In that year, many individuals expended an enormous amount of time and effort working on the church building and cemetery. However, in the decades following, due to its remote and unprotected location, the building and cemetery were subjected to terrible vandalism. Although a number of efforts were made to repair the damage caused by the vandals, the defacement continued unabated. Finally, frustrated by the vandalism, recognizing their inability to restore and preserve the Church, yet cognizant of the historical importance of the property, the Edgefield Baptist Association deeded the property to the Edgefield County Historical Society in 2002.</p><br>
<p>From the beginning, the Society felt the heavy obligation to preserve and restore this historic treasure. It is one of the oldest – if not the oldest – structures in Edgefield County. The best estimate, based upon architectural and documentary evidence, is that the current building was constructed as least as early as 1784 when the property was platted and conveyed to the original Trustees. It is a monument to the beginning of the religious fervor in the South Carolina and Georgia backcountries in the 18th century. Almost all of the Baptist churches in this region, including Big Stevens Creek Baptist Church in Edgefield County and Kiokee Baptist Church in Columbia County, Georgia, trace their roots to the ministry of Daniel Marshall. The Edgefield County Historical Society was so keenly aware of the importance of this property and the religious revival which started here that it undertook to have a comprehensive history of the early years of the Church written and published several years ago, copies of which can be obtained from the Society.</p><br>
<p>The Church is also significant because one of Edgefields most important pottery entrepreneurs, Reverend John Landrum, was the pastor here for nearly forty years. As Reverend Landrum owned the Slave Potter Dave, it is likely that Dave attended Horns Creek Church from time to time. Horns Creek Church is therefore one of only two extant structures which can claim a close association with Edgefields renowned pottery heritage.</p><br>
<p>The Society&#39;s long-term vision for the Church was that it will become a museum for the rich Colonial, Revolutionary and Early National history of Edgefield County, as well as an event center for meetings, concerts, weddings and other gatherings. It was anticipated that the rental revenue derived from events held here would provide the income to maintain the property.</p><br>
<p>The Society&#39;s original efforts at restoration of the Church were frustrated by the destructive vandalism which continued while the property was still uninhabited. It was finally concluded that no further efforts at restoration were warranted until the property could be protected by having someone living on site. The Society made some efforts at temporarily housing a caretaker on site in the years immediately following its acquisition of the property, but it became clear that this would not be enough.</p><br>
<p>Thus, it was not until 2013 that a decision was made to move forward with the construction a caretakers cottage. With the support of much volunteer help, generous contributions, and a mortgage loan from a regional bank, construction of a caretakers cottage was begun in the spring of 2014. A ground-breaking ceremony was held on Palm Sunday, April 13, 2014. By the spring of 2015 the cottage was completed, and is, by all accounts, a very credible structure, much in keeping with the architecture of the Church.</p><br>
<p>About this same time, the Society was fortunate to secure Barney Lamar, a Beech Island native with deep Edgefield County roots, to be the caretaker of the property. Mr. Lamar is a restorer of fine art and has a good grasp of local history. The Society could not have found a more ideal caretaker for Horn&#39;s Creek Church. His wonderful collection of art is beautifully displayed in the cottage and provides another interesting element for visitors to see. With the caretaker living on site, there has been no vandalism to the Church or the Cemetery.</p><br>
<p>By the end of 2016, although the caretakers cottage was completed and the property was protected, nothing substantial had been done restore the Church building itself. Then, in early 2017, a one-time grant program of the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor was announced for which the restoration of Horns Creek Church was eligible. In July of that year, a $50,000 grant was awarded for the project and the requisite $50,000 in matching funds was secured from a group of committed individuals. The restoration work on the Church began in earnest in the Fall of 2017 and was substantially completed in 2018, including the installation of interpretive panels on the interior walls, telling the story of the region and the church.</p><br>
<p>The Horns Creek Church Museum is now open by appointment. For those more interested in the detailed history of the Church, copies of The Early History of Horns Creek Church by Bettis C. Rainsford are available by contacting the Edgefield County Historical Society, P. O. Box 174, Edgefield, SC 29824, 803-637-2233. For those wanting to visit the Church, please call 803-844-8186 or 803-637-2233.</p><br>
<p>Concord Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian church located near Winnsboro, Fairfield County, South Carolina. It was built in 1818, and is a one-story, brick, gable-roofed building with a meeting house floor plan. It has a small, rectangular, gable-roofed rear extension and sits on a granite foundation. Also on the property is a cemetery with a cast-iron fence and gates.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.</p><br>
<p>Liberty Universalist Church and Feasterville Academy Historic District is a national historic district located near Winnsboro, Fairfield County, South Carolina. The property encompasses four buildings constructed between 1831 and 1845. They are the Liberty Universalist Church and three buildings associated with the Academy: a boarding house, a kitchen, and a school building. The buildings were constructed by the Feaster family.</p><br>
<p>The Feaster family followed the family patriarch Andrew Feaster when he migrated from Lancaster County in eastern Pennsylvania to the Beaver Creek area in Fairfield County, South Carolina. In South Carolina, the Feasters were active in religious activities, first with the German Baptist Brethren and later with the Universalists. When Andrew Feaster died in 1821 his son John became the family patriarch. John Feaster oversaw the construction of the buildings now included in the national historic district.</p><br>
<p>The construction of the church building in 1831 coincided with the formation of the South Carolina Convention of Universalists in November 1830. The academy buildings were constructed in 1845 as a commercial enterprise to provide educational facilities to area residents. The school has alternately been referred to as an “academy,” “female seminary” and “boarding house.”</p><br>
<p>The grounds and buildings continue to be used for private yearly family reunions.</p><br>
<p>The Historic District and related buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.</p><br>
<h2>Family background</h2><br>
<p>Andrew Feaster (1735–1821) was born in the Canton of Berne, Switzerland, and immigrated to America in 1754. The 19 year old Feaster immigrated with his father Peter Pfister (1700–1775) and perhaps with other relatives. They settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. For decades, Lancaster County was a destination for German-speaking immigrants. A significant percentage of those settling in this area were German Baptists or related religious sects such as the Schwenkfelders, Moravians, Mennonites, Quakers and Amish.</p><br>
<h3>Marriage and children</h3><br>
<p>The public record for Andrew Feaster is silent for more than a decade after his arrival in America. In 1767 he married Margaret Frie (alternatively, Fry) Cooper. Margaret Frie had previously been married to Peter Cooper, whom she married in 1757 in Philadelphia. Cooper died in 1766. Based on family genealogical records, four children were born into the Cooper – Frie marriage: Adam (1755–1835), Peter (born 1762), Eve (born 1761), and Elizabeth Keiffer (born 1766). Feaster had also been previously married and brought one child, Martha “Mattie” (1766–1866) into his marriage with Frie. Into the Feaster – Frie marriage six children were born, John (1768–1848), Susannah (1769–1829), Margaret (1770–1825), Andrew (1777–1808), Alice “Ailsey” (1781–1830) and Jacob (1791–1872).</p><br>
<h3>Migration to South Carolina</h3><br>
<p>Rev. D.B. Clayton (Daniel Bragg Clayton) in his 1889 autobiography Forty-seven Years in the Universalist Ministry, observed that Feaster arrived in South Carolina after the birth of his sons John and Andrew. Etta A. Rosson in her paper The Feasters (Pfister) and Feasterville argues that the Feasters initially migrated to Georgia. She cites a 1774 petition by Andrew Feaster for a land grant in Wilkes County, Georgia. However, due to agitation by local Native Americans, Feaster abandoned his Georgia land grants and moved to South Carolina. For the purposes of this article, it will be assumed that Feaster and his large family arrived in Beaver Creek along the Broad River in Fairfield County, South Carolina in the late 1770s.</p><br>
<h3>Religious background</h3><br>
<p>The Feasters were commonly referred to as Dunkards. In a personal historic reflection printed in 1880 in the newspapers about Feaster and other early settlers in the Beaver Creek area, the author said, “ were called Dunkards and were the only men seen with unshaven faces.” Dunkards (alternatively Tunkers, First Day Baptists) were associated with the Schwarzenau Brethren, a branch formed from the Anabaptists in Germany by Alexander Mack in 1708. The Brethren adopted adult (vs. infant) baptism via a three-time immersion, giving rise to the term Dunkards. In 1723 Peter Becker established the first Brethren society in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Over time that society has been known as The Fraternity of German Baptists, German Baptists or Church of the Brethren, hereafter referred to only as the German Brethren or simply the Brethren.</p><br>
<h2>Evolution: Brethren to Universalist</h2><br>
<p>Writing some 60 years after the death of Andrew Feaster, Rev. D.B. Clayton stated that Feaster and his son John preached salvation for all in their Dunkard church. The Brethren were devout, pious people and some may have, indeed, privately held a belief in universal salvation. Roger E. Sappington observed in his book The Brethren in the Carolinas that the “Brethren emphasis on the New Testament and its pattern of God’s love through Christ had made the Brethren susceptible to the wiles of Universalism in the first place.” The preaching of universal salvation, however, was not generally part of Brethren religious practices. Nonetheless, from 1780 to 1830, three preachers, David Martin, Giles Chapman and Elijah Linch moved the Feasters and their Brethren neighbors to Universalism.</p><br>
<h3>David Martin</h3><br>
<p>Sometime in 1754, David Martin (1737–1794), a prodigious Brethren minister, arrived in South Carolina. Morgan Edwards, a Baptist historian, offered a 1772 first hand observation of Martins labors, noting that despite having no meetinghouse, his Beaver Creek Brethren congregation included 25 families and 50 baptized members. Edwards evidently had sufficient personal contact with David Martin to describe him as having an "excellent character" and that he is "facetious and devout at the same time." Edwards recounted Martins early years of preaching in the Beaver Creek area. "About the year 1748 Michael Millers, Jacob Canomore, Laurence Free, with their wives arrived from Conneocoheague; some years later after came Rev. George Martin and wife, and Hans Waggoner and wife; these united in communion in the month of July 1759 and increased fast partly by baptism and partly by emigration. Their minister is Rev. David Martin."</p><br>
<p>Thomas Whittemore in The History of Universalism in America offered that around 1780 Martin was led to doubt the validity of the doctrine of endless punishment by the works of the English clergyman William Law. Martin may have also been moved by a local Universalist influence by the preaching by Rev. Elhanan Winchester. Winchester, who would later become a leading voice for Universalism, was the pastor of the Welsh Neck Baptist Church (1775–1779) on the Peedee River in South Carolina. Winchester dropped the Calvinist principle of election from the churchs creed. Yet, despite resistance to the message of universal salvation from the Brethren leadership and local orthodox churches, from 1780 until his death in 1794, David Martin gradually turned the Brethren to the adoption of universal salvation. Martins preaching was then taken up by Giles Chapman.</p><br>
<h3>Giles Chapman</h3><br>
<p>Giles Chapman (1748–1819) was born in Newberry District, South Carolina in 1748. His parents had arrived in America from Bridlington, England in 1725 and first settled in Virginia. They later migrated to South Carolina. Chapman married Mary Summers, the daughter of Joseph Summers. Both the Summers and Chapmans were notable Dunkard families in the Newberry area. John Belton O’Neall, a contemporary of Chapman, wrote “He began to preach in 1782. Often have I heard his discourses. He was beyond all doubt an eloquent and a gifted preacher; and seemed to me to be inspired with a full portion of the holy and divine spirit, which taught ‘God is Love.’”</p><br>
<p>Although Martin and Chapman preached universal salvation, they and their Dunkard followers did not consider themselves Universalists. That is, the Brethren stressed religion as a way of living rather than as conformity to a confession of faith or an alliance with a denomination.</p><br>
<p>Elijah Linch next took up the leadership in preaching Universalism. Linch is the transition agent for the Brethren in their evolution to the public acceptance of Universalism.</p><br>
<h3>Elijah Linch</h3><br>
<p>In 1794 when Elijah Linch (1773-1842) (alternatively Lynch) united himself with the Dunkards in the Newberry District, he did so as a Universalist, being the last member to be received with the ceremonies of the Dunkards. By 1805 Linch joined Chapman in preaching Universalist sermons in Fairfield, Newberry and other nearby districts. By this time no Brethren minister was present in these districts. Nonetheless, the spread of Universalism was slow. Whittemore observed in 1830, 25 years after Linch started his preaching that his “labors, though faithful and approved, have not been as extensive as those of his predecessors.”</p><br>
<p>Upon his death in 1842, Linch had provided 37 years of religious service to his fellow South Carolinians. However, among his lasting contribution was his participation in the formation of the South Carolina Convention of Universalists, a local governing body that formally united the Martin, Chapman and Linch societies with the larger Universalist denomination in America.</p><br>
<h2>South Carolina Universalist societies and convention</h2><br>
<p>In 1830, two Universalist societies were officially organized in South Carolina. The first was in Feasterville. John Feaster, son of Andrew Feaster, was among the founding members of this society that would become the Liberty Universalist Church.</p><br>
<p>Numerous articles in newspapers and periodicals as well as the current church signage note that the Liberty Universalist Church was founded in 1777. This founding date could not be independently confirmed. The 1777 date is consistent with the time frame when David Martin was preaching his Brethren theology. It is even possible that this Dunker/pre-Universalist congregation formed earlier than 1777. As cited earlier, Morgan Edwards observed that there was an active congregation in this area as early as 1772. Regardless of a founding date any time in the 1770s, it is unlikely that the term “Universalist” would have been included in the congregation&#39;s name.</p><br>
<p>Since Martin&#39;s congregants had no meeting house, they most likely met in local homes or at a local meetinghouse. An area historian speculated that the Mobley Meetinghouse, available to all religious groups, might have been used.</p><br>
<p>A second Universalist society followed in October 1830 at the Hartford meetinghouse in Newberry district. Rev. Linch proposed that the new society be called the First Universalist Society of Newberry District. A month later, in November 1830, Universalists gathered again at the Hartford meetinghouse and formed the South Carolina Convention of Universalists. The convention provided an organization body for South Carolina Universalists, enabling them to call preachers and manage the collective affairs of the state&#39;s Universalists.</p><br>
<p>Accounts regarding the construction date of the Liberty Universalist Church vary from 1830 to 1832. The current church signage notes that the church was constructed in 1832. A contemporary news account regarding the second meeting of the South Carolina Convention of Universalists in September 1831 in Feasterville commented upon the zeal of the local brothers “in building the Liberty Meeting House.” This account documents that the current structure on the Liberty Universalist lot was erected as early as September 1831.</p><br>
<p>The Liberty Universalist and Newberry churches were later joined by societies that formed in Lexington, Laurens, Anderson and Abbeville districts. All these societies joined the South Carolina Convention of Universalists. The Convention remained active until the start of the American Civil War (1860–1865). The last meeting of the Convention was held at the Liberty Universalist church in 1860. The Liberty Universalist Church then drifted into a state of near dormancy along with other Universalist societies.</p><br>
<p>In 1870, Rev. D.B. Clayton reported to the Universalist national convention that the only church building in South Carolina that remained in the possession of the Universalists was the Feasterville church.</p><br>
<h2>Liberty Universalist Church – re-established</h2><br>
<p>An invitation extended to Clayton by the church in 1871 was the start of the revival of the church. Clayton, in his autobiography, recalled that among the congregants who responded to his 1871 call for individuals to commit themselves to a re-organization of the church was Jennie Coleman, the great-great-granddaughter of the family patriarch Andrew Feaster Sr. Six years passed, however, before the church was officially re-organized in 1877. At that time, 25 members committed to the re-organization, including D.R. Coleman, J.A.F. Coleman and V.P. Clayton who served as deacons, J.C. Feaster as treasurer and J. Hendrix McLane as clerk. By 1883, the church had 35 members and an active Sunday school. Preaching was still limited, with Clayton providing services only six to eight times a year. Membership growth in the only Universalist church in the state showed modest gains, rising to 58 by 1887.</p><br>
<p>The South Carolina Convention that had ceased operations in 1860 was revived in 1895. Little is known of the Liberty Universalist Church religious activities in the early part of the 20thcentury. A 1929 report revealed that only two religious services had been conducted that year at the church by Rev. J.M. Rasnake of Atlanta. Dire financial conditions in the late 1920s did not bode well for South Carolina cotton farmers nor a revival of the church&#39;s fortunes.</p><br>
<p>In the 1940s, Rev. Thomas Chapman, a native South Carolinian, now living in Georgia occasionally travelled to the Feasterville church to provide services. However, by the 1950s it appears that the church had ceased religious services.</p><br>
<h2>Feasterville Academy</h2><br>
<p>The Feasterville Academy, then called the Seminary, opened on January 2, 1845. Mrs. Catharine Ladd, who had previously taught at the Brattonsville Female Seminary in York County, South Carolina and more recently (1842–1844) at the Woodward Academy in Winnsboro, was appointed principal.</p><br>
<p>Local historians credit Ladd as the inspiration for the Feasterville Seminary. According to local lore, in 1840 John Feaster, son of Andrew Feaster Sr., commissioned a South Carolina portrait painter named George Williamson Ladd, the husband of Catharine. While sitting for his portrait, Catharine Ladd asked, “Mr. Feaster, there are so many young ladies in the neighborhood, why don’t you build a school for them?” Feaster responded, “If I build one, will you teach in it?” Ladd responded in the affirmative.</p><br>
<p>The school consisted of a boarding house, a kitchen, and a school building. The scholastic year was divided into two sessions of five months each. At that time, boarding cost was $8.00 per month. Charges for academic courses ranged from $6.00 to $25.00 per five-month session. Academic courses included spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, Latin, French and music.</p><br>
<p>Over the years others followed Catharine Ladd as principal, including Rev. D.B. Clayton, Miss Margaret Narcissa Feaster, Mr. Feaster Lyles and his sister, Isabelle Lyles.</p><br>
<p>The school was later renamed the Feasterville Male and Female Academy.</p><br>
<p>After the academy closed, the schoolhouse was used as a rural one-teacher school. However, by 1929 with the countywide school consolidation, the building ceased being used for academic purposes.</p><br>
<h2>Denouement</h2><br>
<p>In his 1847 will John Feaster bequeathed the academy&#39;s five and one-half acres and its buildings to his sons Jacob Feaster, Andrew Feaster and John Mobley Feaster “in trust and for the benefit of Feasterville Male and Female Academy. I appoint them trustees of the same.” Trustees have continuously been appointed, resulting in the maintenance of the buildings and property. The buildings are now used as the venue for yearly family reunions.</p><br>
<p>Little River Baptist Church is a historic Southern Baptist church located near Jenkinsville, Fairfield County, South Carolina. USA. It was built about 1845, and is a one-story, frame meeting house plan church. The church is a rectangular clapboard structure of Greek Revival design with Gothic Revival details in the front facade. The front gabled roof is supported by four octagonal columns on a raised platform. In the early 1950s, a wing was added to provide Sunday School rooms and kitchen facilities.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.</p><br>
<p>Monticello Methodist Church is a historic Methodist church off SC 215 in Monticello, Fairfield County, South Carolina. It was built in 1861, and is a one-story, front-gable-roofed, weatherboarded frame building in the Greek Revival style with a meeting house floor plan. The façade features a portico is supported by octagonal wooden columns on a stepped brick entrance. Also on the property is the church cemetery.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.</p><br>
<p>Mount Olivet Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian church located near Winnsboro, Fairfield County, South Carolina. It was built in 1869, and is a one-story, rectangular, front-gabled stuccoed brick building. The stucco is scored to resemble cut stone and the church sits on a granite foundation. The large cemetery northwest of the church contains several historically and artistically significant gravestones dating back to 1795 and is enclosed by a cast-iron fence.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.</p><br>
<p>New Hope A.R.P. Church and Session House is a historic Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church building and Session House located near Winnsboro, Fairfield County, South Carolina. They were built about 1886. The meeting house form church is a one-story, weatherboarded, frame church. It features a bracketed belfry with a bellcast roof. The session house is a 10 by 12 foot weatherboarded frame building with a gable roof.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.</p><br>
<p>Ruff&#39;s Chapel is a historic Methodist chapel at USA 21 and SC 34 in Ridgeway, Fairfield County, South Carolina. It was built about 1870, and is a single-story, rectangular frame building, sheathed in weatherboard, with a front gabled roof. It has a square open belfry with a metal covered bellcast hip roof and a ball finial.</p><br>
<p>It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.</p><br>
<p>Christ Church is a historic church located near Florence, Florence County, South Carolina. It was constructed in 1859, and is a Carpenter Gothic-style church building. It has a cruciform plan, with board and batten construction, a steeply pitched roof with simple wooden brackets, and pointed-arched windows and doors. It is part of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina in the Anglican Church in North America.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.</p><br>
<p>Hopewell Presbyterian Church and Hopewell Cemetery is a historic Presbyterian church and cemetery located at 5314 Old River Road in Florence, South Carolina. The two-story, frame, Greek Revival-style church was completed in 1842. It features a pedimented front gable end and two-story portico. It is clad in weatherboard and rests on a brick pier foundation with brick infill. The cemetery, in use since the late-18th century, occupies a three-acre site where the original Hopewell Presbyterian Church stood. It contains a notable collection of 19th century marble headstones and monuments. Inside the cemetery is the church&#39;s early Session House.</p><br>
<p>It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.</p><br>
