City: Charleston, SC

Category: Tours & Attractions

Address: 150 Meeting St.

Description: This church was originally called the Independent Church of Charles Towne and was established in 1681 by some of the first settlers of Charleston. It was one of the first two congregations created in the settlement (the other being St. Philip’s Church). The first building was of white brick and was known by locals as the White Meeting House. It is from this early euphemism that Meeting Street takes its name. That building was outgrown and replaced in 1804 by the first “Circular Church,” an impressive structure designed in the Pantheon style by Charleston’s famous architect Robert Mills. It is said to have seated 2,000 people, both black and white. The great fire of 1861 swept across the city and took this building with it. The ruins stood mutely until the earthquake of 1886 turned them to rubble. A third (and the present) building on this site was completed in 1892 and is circular in form but Romanesque in style. The church’s graveyard is the city’s oldest, with monuments dating from 1695. This is the burial ground of Nathaniel Russell.