City: Charleston, SC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 3030 Cypress Gardens Rd.
City: Charleston, SC
Category: Tours & Attractions
City: Charleston, SC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 1214 West Middle St.
City: Charleston, SC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 217 Fort Johnson Rd.
City: Charleston, SC
Category: Tours & Attractions
21. HISTORIC CHURCHES
City: Charleston, SC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Description: In a city that was a major contributor to the American ethic of religious freedom, there’s a deep reverence for church architecture. The “Holy City,” as it likes to be called, has dozens of beautiful 18th- and 19th-century churches that bear witness to this history and the 21st-century pride that goes with it. Several churches are notable because of their early dates of construction, while others impress with their architectural grandeur. Some are survivors of cataclysmic events; a few speak volumes about their ethnic and sociological origins.
22. Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (1890–1907)
City: Charleston, SC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 120 Broad St.
Description: The first Cathedral of St. John the Baptist was completed in 1854. It was an outstanding example of Gothic architecture, built of Connecticut sandstone with a 200-foot spire. The building was completely lost in the great fire of 1861. By 1890, work had begun on what is almost an exact duplicate of the 1854 building. It was designed by P. C. Kelly of Brooklyn, New York, and followed closely the plans for the original structure. The exception is the square tower that, for monetary reasons, replaced the tall spire. A new spire and three bells were added atop the tower 103 years later, completing the reconstruction of the old building. The newer building is made of Connecticut brownstone. The nave is tiled, measures 150 by 80 feet, and seats 700 people.
23. Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul (1815)
City: Charleston, SC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 126 Coming St.
Description: The church that is now the Cathedral Church for the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina was originally known as St. Paul’s, Radcliffeborough. It was organized as a mission in 1806. This building, designed by the architects James and John Gordon, was completed in 1815. At the time of its building, the load of the tower proved too heavy for the supporting walls, and the tower was dismantled. A lighter, Gothic Revival–style parapet was added, which is in contrast to the Classical Revival building below. Inside, the original color schemes have been reproduced as part of the intensive restoration of the building following severe damage in Hurricane Hugo.
City: Charleston, SC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 150 Meeting St.
City: Charleston, SC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 110 Calhoun St.
26. First Baptist Church (1822)
City: Charleston, SC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 61 Church St.
Description: Here is the oldest Baptist church in the South. The congregation originally emigrated from Maine to the Carolinas in 1696. The building was designed by the first American-born architect, Robert Mills, in the popular Greek Revival style. Mills didn’t mince words, saying of his creation, “[it is] the best specimen of correct taste in architecture in the city. It is purely Greek in style, simply grand in its proportions, and beautiful in its detail.” Wood for the solid mahogany pulpit was brought from the West Indies for the staggering sum (in 1822) of $1,000. First Baptist’s fabulous organ dates from 1845 and was made by Erben.
City: Charleston, SC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 53 Meeting St.
City: Charleston, SC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 136 Church St.
29. Grace Episcopal Church (1848)
City: Charleston, SC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 98 Wentworth St.
Description: Another magnificent example of Gothic-style church architecture in Charleston is Grace Episcopal Church, designed by Edward Brickell White. This building was completed in 1848. The memorial windows in Grace Church are teaching windows, each containing scenes from the life of Christ as well as laypersons and clergy associated with the church. The largest window, over the rear doorway, took more than a year to complete and contains more than 10,000 pieces of glass. A small window on the Epistle side of the narthex contains an angel with the face of a small girl who drowned on Sullivan’s Island. Grace Church was closed for a year in 1864 because of the terrible bombardment from Morris Island, but it reopened soon after the evacuation of Charleston, during Federal occupation.
30. Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (1840)
City: Charleston, SC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 90 Hasell St.
Description: This is the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the United States. The present congregation was organized in 1749. It is also the longest surviving Reform synagogue in the world. Beth Elohim is acknowledged as the birthplace of Reform Judaism in the United States, tracing its origins back to 1824. This is a branch of Judaism that places more emphasis on traditional religious and moral values, instead of rigid ceremonial and ritualistic detail. The present 1840 Greek Revival structure was designed by Cyrus L. Warner. The graceful but massive wrought-iron fence that faces onto Hasell Street dates back to the original 1794 synagogue.