congregation of St. John's was organized in 1757 with the Reverend John
George Fredichs as pastor. Lacking a building of their own the Lutherans
used the French Huguenot Church. June 24, 1764, the first St. John's was
dedicated. The present brick building was dedicated January 18, 1818,
the Reverend Dr. John Bachman, friend and associate of J. J. Audubon,
the celebrated naturalist, being the pastor. This congregation was
influential in the organization of Newberry College and the Lutheran
Theological Seminary in South Carolina. Prominent persons of German
origin or descent are buried in the yard. But the Lutheran story goes
back to March, 1734. In his _Sketch of St. John's_, the Reverend E. T.
Horn says: "In March, 1734, while the ship containing the exiled
Salzburgers lay off the harbor of Charleston, Governor Oglethorpe
brought their Commissary, the Baron von Reck, and their pastor, the
Reverend John Martin Bolzius, with him to the city. Here they found a
few Germans, firm in their attachment to the Lutheran faith, and
hungering and thirsting for the Holy Supper. In May, therefore, Bolzius
was glad to accompany von Reck as far as Charleston, that he might
minister to this little company, and on Sunday, May 26th, 1754, at five
o'clock in the morning, most probably in the inn where Bolzius was
stopping, he administered the Holy Communion to those whom on the day
before he had examined and absolved according to the usages of the
Lutheran Church."
[Illustration: _William Rhett House, 58 Hasell Street_]
[Illustration: _The Izard Houses; Nearer, Home of Bishop of
Charleston; Other is the Older--110 and 114 Brand Street_]
UNITARIAN CHURCH, _6 Archdale Street_: Just before the American
Revolution, the Circular Church on Meeting Street, cradle of
Presbyterianism in Charles Town, found it necessary to use an additional
building. Thus another church with another pastor was established in
Archdale Street. One of the pastors espoused Unitarianism and by
amicable agreement the part of the congregation following his teachings
took over the Archdale Street church. While the British occupied
Charlestown during the Revolution, they stabled horses in this edifice.
The present church building was dedicated in April of 1854, and is much
praised for its architecture. The ceiling of the nave is peculiarly
attractive. The pastor of this Unitarian congregation, the only one in
Charleston, was the Reverend Samuel Gilman, author of the famous college
song, "Fair Harvard," and in his memory Harvard alumni arranged the
Samuel Gilman Memorial Room in the church tower; the ceremony was
performed April 16, 1916.
ST. MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH, _79 Hasell Street_: Mother parish of the
Roman Catholic Church in North and South Carolina and Georgia, St.
Mary's congregation was organized in 1794, and in 1798 bought a frame
building from a Protestant congregation. In 1836 this was burned and on
the site the present fine brick edifice was erected being completed in
1838. In the late 1890's the interior was improved. Memorial
stained-glass windows were emplaced. Of its interesting graveyard Bishop
John M. England who came to Charleston in 1820 (finding two Catholic
churches occupied and two priests doing duty) wrote: "The cemetery of
this church which is now in the center of the city affords in the
inscriptions of its monuments the evidence of the Catholicity of those
whose ashes it contains. You may find the American and the European side
by side.... The family of the Count de Grasse, who commanded the fleets
of France near the Commodore of the United States and his partner, sleep
in the hope of being resuscitated by the same trumpet." According to
David Ramsay, "prior to the American Revolution in 1776, there were very
few Roman Catholics in Charleston, and these had no ministry, but of all
other countries none has furnished the Province with so many inhabitants
as Ireland." About 1786 a vessel bound for South America, having an
Italian priest aboard, put into Charleston. This priest celebrated mass
for a congregation of about twelve persons. It was "the first Mass
celebrated in Charleston and may be regarded as the introduction of the
Catholic religion to the States of North Carolina, South Carolina and
Georgia which afterward constituted the See of Charleston." The history
of St. Mary's is coeval with the history of the Roman Catholic religion
in the Southeast, excluding the Florida possessions of the Spanish.
ST. JAMES, GOOSE CREEK, _off the Coastal Highway_: The British Royal
Arms still stand in South Carolina! The British yoke was thrown off one
hundred and sixty years ago, but in St. James Church, Goose Creek,
sixteen miles from the city hall of Charleston the Royal Arms have never
come down! The ancient edifice stands in a tranquil woodland, quite near
The Oaks, home of Arthur Middleton in early years. At the foot of the
altar is a tomb with this inscription: "Here lyeth the body of the
Reverend Francis Le Jau, Doctor in Divinity, of Trinity College, Dublin,
who came to this Province October, 1706, and was one of the first
missionaries sent by the honourable society to this Province, and was
the first Rector of St. James, Goose Creek, Obijt. 15th September, 1717,
ætat 52, to whose memory this stone is fixed by his only Son, Francis Le
Jau." In the records left by Dr. Le Jau is mentioned that he christened
Indians. Four acres for the old parsonage were the gift of Arthur
Middleton, and another pioneer gave the Glebe of one hundred acres. The
cherubs in stucco over each of the keystones are famous and so is the
pelican feeding her young, over the west door. Interesting memorial
tablets have places. In the present day this picturesque and historic
church is easily reached by automobile. Each year at Easter divine
services are held in the church, the congregation invariably overflowing
the building. The original church was built soon after Dr. Le Jau's
arrival.
ST. ANDREW'S, BERKELEY, _on the Ashley River Road_: The parish of St.
Andrew's, Berkeley (the district about Charles Town was Berkeley in
olden times), was founded in 1706 and a simple brick building erected.
Seventeen years later this was enlarged, taking the form of a cross. The
gallery was intended for non-pewholders and was later set aside for
negroes. Destroyed by fire it was rebuilt in 1764 and is one of the few
rural churches that has survived the Revolution and the War for Southern
Independence. St. Andrew's was one of ten parishes authorized by act of
the Assembly in 1706 regulating religious worship in accordance with the
forms of the Church of England. In quite recent years a question
relative to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London was raised! St.
Andrew's had its genesis when the colony had a population of 9,000, "of
whom 5,000 were Negro and Indian slaves."
ASHLEY RIVER ROAD, _Leading to Famous Gardens_: St. Andrew's Church is
but one of many interesting and historic places on the Ashley River
Road. Two miles from the Ashley River Bridge the road passes near the
site of the original Charles Town in South Carolina and three miles
farther is the Ashley Hall plantation of the Bull family, distinguished
in provincial and colonial periods. It was on the Bull place that
Attakullakulla, a chief of the Cherokee Indians, signed a treaty of
peace in the 1760's after his tribe had been severely humbled by the
whites. Just across the highway were the lovely Magwood Gardens, now the
property of a granddaughter of President Abraham Lincoln. Here the
highway passes through a grove of majestic live oaks festooned with
Spanish moss. Seven miles from the bridge one passes St. Andrew's Church
and a short distance farther through old Fort Bull, the moat about which
has been filled. Next, on the right, is the entrance to Drayton Hall,
then Magnolia Gardens, Runnymede, home of John Julius Pringle, Speaker
of the House of the Assembly in 1787, and later the property of Charles
Cotesworth Pinckney, of the famous Pinckney family; Middleton Place
(gardens) where is buried Arthur Middleton, Signer of the _Declaration
of Independence_; the seat of the old Wragg barony; the Ashley River is
crossed at Bacon's Bridge near which stands an ancient oak beneath the
spreading boughs of which General Francis Marion is alleged to have
entertained a British officer (it is a pretty legend, but its site is
severally located). Half a mile beyond the bridge is the road leading
down to the ruins of old Dorchester, established in 1696 by colonists
from Dorchester, Massachusetts, led by the Reverend Joseph Lord. In this
year ruins of fort and churches are mute reminders of a brave village in
a primeval wilderness infested with savage Indians. From Bacon's Bridge
the distance to Summerville is five miles. It is a drive every visitor
to this section should follow. In the season, the Middleton Place and
Magnolia Gardens are open to visitors.
[Illustration: _Foreground, Unitarian Church; Background, St. John's
Lutheran Church_]
[Illustration: _Huguenot Church. Only One in America_]
CASTLE PINCKNEY, _in Charleston Harbor_: Stand on the incomparable
Battery and look seaward. Fort Sumter is in plain view, of course, but
nearer the gaze is Castle Pinckney, holding the status nowadays of a
government monument. It is to be reached only by boat. The fort at the
edge of the sand bank known as Shute's Folly was built after the
Revolution, in 1797-1804. Later, it was enlarged. In the War for
Southern Independence, it lacked opportunity to contribute materially to
the defense of Charleston. Really there is more legend than history
about Castle Pinckney, but long it has been a well-known landmark. The
government used it as a depot for aids for navigation until the depot
was established at the foot of Tradd Street, on the Ashley River, site
of the old Chisolm's rice mill. An excuse for including it among
_Landmarks of Charleston_ is that many strangers promenading on the High
Battery wish to know what Castle Pinckney is.
ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH, _78 Meeting Street_: Five times have the bells of
St. Michael's crossed the Atlantic ocean. They came from England in 1764
and returned there after the British evacuated the town in 1784.
Repurchased for Charleston, they came back to their steeple. During the
War for Southern Independence they were taken for safekeeping to
Columbia and in the burning of that town charged to General William
Tecumseh Sherman (who had been a social favorite in Charleston before
the war) they were so damaged that they were shipped to England. There
they were recast in the original molds. Brought back they are still in
the steeple, pealing on occasions. When Charles Town on the peninsula
was laid out, a lot was designed for the English church, St. Philip's. A
wooden building was erected. This being outgrown a brick church was
built on Church Street, on the present site of St. Philip's. By act of
the Assembly, June, 1751, Charlestown was divided into two parishes; the
lower, St. Michael's, and the upper, St. Philip's. February 17, 1752,
the corner stone was laid with much ceremony, the _South Carolina
Gazette_ carrying an account. The reputed successor of Sir Christopher
Wrenn was the architect and the edifice is declared to resemble St.
Martin's-in-the-Field, London, near Trafalgar Square. From the pavement
to the ball of the steeple is 182 feet. During the War for Southern
Independence, the steeple, and that of St. Philip's, offered shining
marks for the Union artillerists. Cannon balls struck the church, but
not with serious results. Heavy damage was done by the earthquake of
August 31, 1886. The old clock in the steeple, with four dials, began
the keeping of Charlestown time in 1764. President George Washington and
the Marquis de Lafayette have worshipped in St. Michael's. In the taxed
tea excitement of 1774, the assistant rector of St. Michael's preached a
sermon that aroused his congregation and he received his walking papers.
In the yard of this church are illustrious dead, including James Louis
Petigru, eminent South Carolina lawyer, an opponent of Nullification in
the 1830's and of Secession in 1860; however, when his state had
seceded, Mr. Petigru cast his fortune with the Confederacy. The
incumbent Bishop of South Carolina, the Right Reverend Albert S. Thomas
was rector of St. Michael's when he was elected to this high office.
CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, _122 Broad Street_: John Morica
England, first Bishop of Charleston, arrived in Charleston December 30,
1820, and the Cathedral of St. Finbar was dedicated by him a year later.
It was a plain frame structure. Thirty years it stood. Then it was razed
for the building of the St. John and St. Finbar Cathedral, burned in
1861; it was similar in design to the present Cathedral of St. John the
Baptist on the same site, the northeast corner of Broad and Legare
Streets. This handsome Gothic edifice of brown stone was begun late in
1888 by the Right Reverend Henry Pinckney Northrop, Bishop of
Charleston. April 14, 1907, it was consecrated, Cardinal Gibbons being
one of the celebrants. The site is that of the Vauxhall Gardens. Between
December, 1861, and the occupancy of the new cathedral, the congregation
worshipped in the pro-cathedral in Queen Street, built by the Right
Reverend Patrick Nielsen Lynch, then Bishop of Charleston. St. John the
Baptist's is 200 feet long from the entrance to the rear of the vestry,
the nave being 150 feet long by eighty feet wide; from the floor to the
top of clerestory is sixty feet. The interior is beautifully decorated
and contains fine paintings and stained-glass windows. To the north of
the Cathedral is the Convent of Our Lady of Mercy. Graves of bishops are
under the cathedral. The edifice is one of Charleston's cardinal show
places.
TRUMBULL'S WASHINGTON, _in Charleston City Hall_: One of the most famous
and valuable portraits of General George Washington hangs in the City
Hall, northeast corner of Meeting and Broad Streets. It was done by John
Trumbull on the order of the City Council in honor of President
Washington's visit in 1791. It is reputed to be worth a million dollars!
Art connoisseurs have come long distances to inspect this great
portrait. Washington is shown full length, with his horse near him.
While this is Charleston's most valuable painting, there are other fine
paintings in the Municipal Gallery, including President James Monroe,
commemorating his visit in 1819, by Samuel F. B. Morse (inventor of the
telegraph); the damage done by a Union shell in the 1860's does not
show; President Andrew Jackson, in uniform after the Battle of New
Orleans, by Vanderlyn, student under the celebrated Gilbert Stuart;
General Zachary Taylor, with spyglass in hand in Mexico, by Beard; John
Caldwell Calhoun, eminent statesman, addressing the United States
senate, by Healy; General William Moultrie, defender of Fort Moultrie
against Sir Peter Parker's British fleet in 1776, by Fraser; Marquis de
Lafayette, miniature, by Fraser, commemorating the Frenchman's visit in
1825; General Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox," in Revolutionary uniform,
by John Stolle (here the famous coonskin cap is replaced by a
brigadier's hat, by order of William A. Courtenay, then Mayor); Queen
Anne, of England, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, a fragment of the original
cherished as a relic; Joel Roberts Poinsett, statesman, by Jarvis;
William Campbell Preston, statesman, by Jarvis; General and Governor
Wade Hampton, the hero of Reconstruction, by Prescott; General P. G. T.
Beauregard, Confederate Chieftain, by Carter; General Thomas A.
Huguenin, the last Confederate commander of Fort Sumter; statuary busts
of James Louis Petigru, Robert Young Hayne, Christopher Gustavus
Memminger, Robert Fulton, and others. An informing sketch of this
gallery by Joseph C. Barbot, Clerk of Council, is recommended. In
Colonial years the site of the City Hall was the town's market place. On
it the United States Bank was housed about 1802 and this building became
the City Hall. It is related that the money for the purchase came from
the sale of the Exchange to the United States government. The interior
has been rearranged.
THE OLD EXCHANGE, _East End of Broad Street_: From the standpoint of
history, this building is incomparably the most interesting in South
Carolina and one of the most interesting in America, the Rev. William
Way, D.D., told the Rebecca Motte Chapter of the Daughters of the
American Revolution, whose property it is by gift of the United States.
When Charles Town was laid out in 1680 this site was the Court of
Guards, the place of arms for the early colonists. Here were imprisoned
Stede Bonnet and other pirates in 1718 when South Carolina was putting
down piracy after its previous years of friendship and fraternizing. The
Exchange and Custom House was built in 1767 at a cost of 44,016 pounds.
Most of the material was brought from England in sailing vessels. The
date of completion was 1771. Taxed tea from England was stored in the
Exchange in 1774 and citizens prevented its sale. A second cargo,
arriving November 3, 1774, was dumped by merchants of Charlestown into
the Cooper River. In July, 1774, delegates to the Provincial Congress
gathered in this building and set up the first independent government
established in America; the congress also elected delegates to the
General Congress meeting in Philadelphia. Patriotic men and women of
Charlestown were incarcerated in the Exchange by the British during the
Revolution; it was from the Exchange that the martyr Colonel Isaac Hayne
was led to his execution in 1781. President George Washington was
entertained in the building, Charles Fraser writing in his
_Reminiscences_: "Amidst every recollection that I have of that most
imposing occasion, the most prominent is the person of that great man as
he stood upon the steps of the Exchange uncovered, amidst the
enthusiastic acclamation of the citizens." Saturday, May 7, 1791,
General Washington was guest of honor at a "sumptuous entertainment"
given by the merchants of Charleston in the Exchange. During the War of
1812 patriotic meetings were held in the Exchange. In 1818 the city of
Charleston sold the Exchange to the United States government for the sum
of $60,000 and a week later the city government paid the sum of $60,000
for the building of the United States Bank, to be converted into the
City Hall. The following year President James Monroe was in the
Exchange. The federal government used the building for a customhouse and
post office, the customhouse transferring to its own building after the
War for Southern Independence and the post office to its present home in
1896. In the earthquake of 1886, the cupola designed by the artist
Fraser was so badly damaged that it was removed. For years the building
has been headquarters for the Sixth lighthouse district; these offices
continue in it although the government has presented the historic
building to the Daughters of the American Revolution in and of the State
of South Carolina as an historical memorial, to be occupied by the
Rebecca Motte Chapter; this was effective in March of 1913. When the
United States entered the World War the Exchange by unanimous vote of
the D.A.R. was tendered the Federal government which it used to the end
of the conflict. On the centennial of George Washington's death a
handsome bronze tablet on the west side of the Exchange was unveiled.
There is no question that this ante-Revolutionary building is one of
Charleston's greatest landmarks.
[Illustration: _First (Scotch) Presbyterian Church_]
[Illustration: _Bethel Methodist Church_]
SITE OF INSTITUTE HALL, _134 Meeting Street_: South Carolina declared
itself free and independent, seceding from the United States, December
20, 1860. This bold act was taken in the hall of the South Carolina
Institute. The _Ordinance of Secession_ had been adopted in the hall of
the St. Andrew's Society, 118 Broad Street, but the delegates came to
the Institute Hall because of its greater capacity; the wish was to
accommodate as many as possible of the thousands who hoped to see the
ordinance signed. With the great hall crowded to suffocation, after all
the signatures had been affixed, President Jamison advanced to the front
of the rostrum and announced, that South Carolina was an independent
sovereignty, free of the United States. And the War for Southern
Independence was nascent. In this hall several months before had been
held the famous Democratic National Convention that adjourned without
decision with respect to candidates for President and Vice President. On
the site are published _The News and Courier_, one of the oldest daily
newspapers in the United States, founded in 1803, with its roots going
back to 1786, and the _Charleston Evening Post_. They carry on the
traditions of the South.
CONFEDERATE MUSEUM, _at the Head of the Market_: Valuable relics of the
Confederacy are preserved in their hall at the head of Market Street, at
Meeting Street, by the Charleston Chapter of the United Daughters of the
Confederacy. A gun on the porch was fashioned from Swedish wrought iron
from one of the first locomotives operated by the South Carolina
Railroad, the world's oldest long-distance steam railroad. It was among
the first rifled cannon made in the United States. This piece was in
Columbia when General William Tecumseh Sherman's Union troops occupied
that town, and Union soldiers tried to burst the cannon, cracking it
near the muzzle. During riots in the period of Reconstruction the
Washington Light Infantry manned the gun. The Confederate Museum is in a
hall over the west end of the old City Market established between 1788
and 1804, extending from East Bay Street to Meeting Street. Through many
years all household marketing was done in the stalls. Into recent years
it was a common sight to see a gentleman doing the marketing, a negro
with a large basket following him from stall to stall. There survive
stalls in the Market, but the long low building is not congested as it
was in other years. The telephone has contributed much toward the
discontinuance of the good old Charleston custom of marketing in person.
MARION SQUARE, _King, Meeting and Calhoun Streets_: Named in honor of
General Francis Marion, hero of the Revolution, affectionately called
the "Swamp Fox," this six-acre square in the very heart of Charleston
was from 1882 to 1921 the parade ground of The Citadel, the military
college of South Carolina, giving rise to the nickname, Citadel Green.
The Citadel is now at Hampton Park, on the Ashley River, but its main
building and four wings stand as reminders. In Lowndes Street, from
Calhoun to the Citadel sally port, is a statue of John Caldwell Calhoun,
eminent South Carolina statesman, atop a tall granite shaft. On the
Meeting Street side is a monument to General and Governor Wade Hampton,
savior of his State in Reconstruction, and on the west side a section of
"horn work," part of the Revolutionary line of fortifications for the
defense of Charlestown against the invading British. It was just outside
the town, Boundary Street becoming Calhoun Street after the town limits
were extended to their present line in 1849. Before the purchase by the
now defunct Fourth Brigade, the square was solidly built. After the
evacuation of Charleston until 1882 the United States army was in
possession of the Citadel buildings. On the east side and on the west
side are fountains fed by a great artesian well near King and Calhoun
Streets, formerly in the waterworks system.