City: Charleston, SC

Category: Tours & Attractions

Address: 53 Meeting St.

Description: The Scots Kirk (or Scots Meeting House) was organized in 1731 by 12 Scottish families who believed in a strict subscription to the Westminster Standards (church laws) and the Presbyterian form of church government. Their first simple structure on this site was built in 1734. It was replaced in 1814 by the present structure, which is the fifth-oldest church building in Charleston. By unanimous vote of the congregation, the church bell was donated to the Confederacy in 1862 and was only recently replaced by an English bell made in 1814. Although the church was badly damaged by a fire in 1945, it was lovingly repaired. In the window over the main door appears the seal of the Church of Scotland, the burning bush, with a Latin motto that reads, Nec Tamen Consumbatur (Nevertheless it was not consumed).