St. Philip's Episcopal Church (Charleston, South Carolina)

St. Philip's Church

St. Philip's Church
Location 142 Church Street, Charleston, South Carolina
Coordinates 32°46′45″N 79°55′45″W / 32.77917°N 79.92917°W / 32.77917; -79.92917Coordinates: 32°46′45″N 79°55′45″W / 32.77917°N 79.92917°W / 32.77917; -79.92917
Built 1835-1836, building; steeple, 1848-1850
Architect Joseph Hyde, building; Edward Brickell White, steeple
Part of Charleston Historic District (#66000964)
NRHP Reference # 73001695
Significant dates
Added to NRHP November 7, 1973[1]
Designated NHL November 7, 1973[2]
Designated NHLDCP October 9, 1960

St. Philip's Church is an historic church at 142 Church Street in Charleston, South Carolina. Its National Historic Landmark description states: "Built in 1836 (spire completed in 1850), this stuccoed brick church features an imposing tower designed in the Wren-Gibbs tradition. Three Tuscan pedimented porticoes contribute to this design to make a building of the highest quality and sophistication."[2] On November 7, 1973, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark. [3][4]

History

Established in 1681, St. Philip's is the oldest religious congregation in South Carolina. The first St. Philip's Church, a wooden building, was built between 1680 and 1681 at the corner of Broad and Meeting streets on the present day site of St. Michael's Episcopal Church. It was damaged in a hurricane in 1710 and a new St. Phillip's Church was begun a few blocks away on Church Street. After being delayed it was finished in 1723 but burned to the ground in 1835.[5] Work on the present church was begun that same year and completed the next. The steeple was added between 1848 and 1850.[6][7]

A prominent early rector of St. Philip's was Rev. Thomas Frost, a fellow of Caius College, Cambridge,[8] who became rector of St. Philip's in 1785.[9] Rev. Frost died in 1804 at 46 years of age.[10] Rev. Thomas Downes Frost, son of the first rector Frost, was elected assistant minister of St. Philip's on March 12, 1815.[11] The second Rev. Frost died an early death at age 26 in 1819.

The wife of another early rector, Gideon Johnston, was Henrietta Johnston, who became the first recorded female artist in the American colonies. Another artistic first with connections to the church was Mary Roberts, the first female American miniaturist, whose burial was recorded in the register in 1761.[12]

The tower of St. Philip's served for many years as the rear tower of a set of range lighthouses serving to guide mariners into Charleston's harbor; the front tower of the range was located on Fort Sumter. The church is one of only two in the United States known to have served such a function.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 "St. Philip's Church". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-03-23.
  3. ↑ St. Philip's Church at South Carolina Department of Archives and History
  4. ↑ Tray Stephenson and Bernard Kearse (April 23, 1973). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: St. Philip's Church" (pdf). National Park Service. and Accompanying two photos, exterior, from 1960 (32 KB)
  5. ↑ "Destructive Fire and Conflagration of St. Philip's Church". The Southern Patriot. Charleston, South Carolina. February 16, 1835. p. 2.
  6. ↑ St. Michael's Episcopal Church history
  7. ↑ St. Philip's Episcopal Church history
  8. ↑ "Frost, Thomas (FRST775T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  9. ↑ Frank Ravenel Frost, Man of Mark in South Carolina, Vol. II, James Calvin Hemphill, Men of Mark Publishing Company, Washington, D.C., 1908
  10. ↑ Frost Family in England and America, with Special Reference to Edmund Frost, Thomas Gold Frost, Edward Lysander Frost, Russell Printing Company, Buffalo, 1909
  11. ↑ Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, Franklin Bowditch Dexter, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1912
  12. ↑ Saunders, Richard H. and Ellen G. Miles. American Colonial Portraits · 1700-1776. Washington, D.C.; Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987. pp. 94-97, p. 163
  13. ↑ Lighthouse Explorer entry
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