Five Favorites

Our "Beyond the Grave Class" went out on a night expedition to see all of the churchyards around us. We visited ten "houses of worship" and out of those ten "houses", here are my top five:

Starting off at #5, we have Second Presbyterian Church!

The denomination of this church is Presbyterian and is located on 342 Meeting Street. It opened on April 3, 1811. The reason I placed this churchyard at number five was that the church itself was beautiful, the walk up to the building is quaint and has lots of history, however, the churchyard was closed and we could not access it.

Here is a link to the church website: https://www.2ndpc.org/our-living-history





Then at #4, we have the Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (or KKBE for short)!

This denomination is Jewish and is located on 90 Hasell Street. It opened in 1749, I placed this churchyard at number four because I thought the building had a unique structure, especially the large Greek Doric columns. Again, the churchyard was closed and looked a tad smaller than the other graves we visited.

Here is a link to their website: https://www.kkbe.org/



Transitioning into #3, it's St Mary's!

This denomination is Roman Catholic and is located on 95 Hasell St. It opened in 1789. I placed this church third because I really liked the name, it had beautiful architecture, two churchyards. Although the churchyards were closed, I was able to go back during the day and capture the essence of the graves.

Here is a link to their website: http://www.sma.church/

The runner up, we have the French Huguenot Church!

The domination is Protestant and is located on 136 Church Street. This church was also burnt down in 1796 but then reconstructed in 1800, just four years later. I placed this church in second place because the church is this vibrant pink and was very uniform and I like that in any architecture. The fact that it was burnt down is interesting as well.


Here is a link to their website: https://www.huguenot-church.org/


And finally, my #1 Pick is St Phillips Church!

I absolutely loved this one because it is the largest one we visited, both church and churchyard. The denomination of this church is Anglican and is located on 142 Church St. The church opened in 1723. A fun fact about the churchyard is that the first College of Charleston president is buried here, Robert Smith. I placed this church as number one because I really liked the iron gates that were in front of the west side of the graveyard and I saw lots of different styles of  graves

Here is a link to their website: https://www.stphilipschurchsc.org/


Overall, the expedition was interesting and I found out that there are many more churchyards around me than I thought.