Escape: Historic Churches and an interesting historical observation

So it turns out that the historic districts of both Charleston and Savannah are both filled with beautiful churches.  As I started reading the tourist information I noticed that there was frequently a mention of the original church building burning down. This distinction is important in the dating of the church building, which then may not be as old as the church congregation.  It was also enormously entertaining to me (have I mentioned that I am easily entertained???) to begin to realize that with only a few exceptions, every single church had burned down.

(When I asked our tour guide in Charleston he reminded me that at that time in history, people were burning stuff all the time.  Burning to heat, burning to cook, and that the introduction of gas lights only intensified the fire problems.  Lots of buildings burned down.  In fact Savannah had 3 major fires that over the course of a century burned down half of the city. But back to the pretty pictures.)

Here were some of the beautiful churches we saw:

Circular Congregational Church in Charleston—destroyed by fire at beginning of Civil War, rebuilt by 1890.

The previously mentioned St. Michaels, burned in 1835.

St. Philips Episcopal Church, oldest congregation in SC.  Almost burned in early 18th century, completely burned down in 1835, rebuilt by 1838.  St. Philip’s bells were melted down to be used in the civil war, and weren’t replaced until July 4th, 1976.

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.  Burned in 1861, in a fire that ravaged much of Charleston. A new cathedral was built on the same site starting in1890. It opened in 1907 and was completed in 2010.  (That’s quite a span of time!)

This is the church where this happily Mormon girl considered trading in her previously saticfactory religious life for the opportunity to worship weekly in a beautiful building.

(Not really, but it was breathtakingly beautiful…)

I did read that there was one church in Charleston that had never burned, but didn’t get a picture of that one.

 

In Savannah we saw the Universal Unitarian church.  It is rumored (including on a big sign outside the church) that the brother of the original minister is the author of the song “Jingle Bells.”  Further interesting information about this church building:

After the Civil War, freed slaves bought the Gothic style church designed by John Norris, partially dismantled it, and rolled it through the streets of the city to its present site in Troup Square. Renamed St. Stephen Episcopal Church, for the next 80 years it was home to the first African Episcopal parish in Georgia. As fate would have it, the Unitarians reclaimed the church in 1997.

And, wouldn’t you know it, the building burned during the civil war when it was used as a guard house.

St. John’s Episcopal Church: incredibly I was not able to find any suggestion that this church was destroyed by fire. 

And the synagogue Mikve Israel, the only gothic synagogue in the US.  It is rumored that they have a gift shop in which you can buy a tshirt that says “Shalom Ya’ll.”  A fire destroyed the first building in 1829, but they did save the Torah scrolls.

It was interesting to see that there was also a Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, and it was also incredibly beautiful.  It was nearly destroyed by fire in 1898, and was immediately rebuilt using the same plans.  The fire would not have caused as much destruction if the entire cotton district hadn’t been on fire at the same time—which meant that there wasn’t enough water pressure to fight the Cathedral fire.

We knew after seeing the Cathedral in Charleston that we wanted to go in this one as well.  It was even more ornate.  In addition to the beautiful stained glass there were equally amazing paintings everywhere.

And there you have it.  A quick survey of some of the beautiful churches we saw in Charleston and Savannah, along with a smattering of fire history.

Shalom, ya’ll!