Plymouth Congregational Church — Charleston, South Carolina

This Gothic Revival church in Charleston was built between 1871 and 1872 as the first house of worship constructed for Plymouth Congregational Church. Like so many churches that organized following the Civil War, Plymouth Congregational Church was founded by former slaves who were suddenly free to form their own congregations. Members of Plymouth Congregational Church had previously worshiped at the Circular Congregational Church – Charleston’s first non-Anglican church – where many African-Americans, both free and enslaved, attended services alongside several of the city’s white dignitaries.

When the church was founded in 1867, members originally met within the new Avery Normal Institute on Bull Street, now the College of Charleston‘s Avery Research Center. The Avery Normal Institute was Charleston’s first free secondary school established for African-Americans, and it was also built in 1867. In 1871 construction began on this church, and a parsonage was erected on neighboring Bull Street in 1886, which hosted many church leaders as well as leaders in the Civil Rights movement. NAACP founder W.E.B. du Bois is said to have visited the church in 1925. When the congregation built a new church in 1957 on Spring Street, this church was occupied by the Association for the Blind, its former churchyard transformed into a fragrance garden. The building was purchased and restored as a private home in 1997.

Plymouth Congregational Church is considered one of the oldest churches of its denomination in the South.

Plymouth Congregational Church Map

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