City Directories and History: The Little River Baptist Church is significant for its architecture and as one of the older Baptist churches in the South Carolina upcountry. Built ca. [1857], the church is an excellent adaptation of the meeting house plan church mixed with popular styles of the period. The church is a rectangular clapboard structure of Greek Revival design with Gothic Revival details in the front facade. The front gabled roof is supported by four octagonal
columns on a raised platform. Two front doors open off of the wide portico. A lancet arch with tracery of wood and glass tops each door with a central keystone. In the center of the pediment is a semi-elliptical louvered vent. The church was apparently constructed by a local craftsman and has many original interior features such as straight-back wooden pews, flooring, and a balcony around three sides resting on columns. There is also hand-carved woodwork including a ceiling rosette from which hangs the original brass chandelier with glass hurricane shades and prisms. In the early 1950’s a wing was added to provide Sunday School rooms and kitchen facilities. Listed in the National Register April 13, 1972. [Courtesy of the S.C. Dept. of Archives and History]
The overall design of this lovely church is that of the Greek Revival style but the front facade is highly reflective of the 1850’s interest in the Gothic Revival style which was being make popular through periodicals and design books. Note the similarity between this handsome house of worship and that of Monticello Methodist Church which was constructed fifteen years later. Both sites are attributed to contractor Jacob Bookman and it is clear the church pews and much of the plaster work was conducted by the same artisans.
In the year 1762, Mr. Jacob Gibson moved from Virginia to South Carolina and settled in Fairfield County near Little River. In 1768 he built a small log church. This church was formally dedicated in 1771, thus becoming the first Baptist Church in Fairfield County. Mr. Gibson served as its Pastor from 1771 until 1790. The church was known as Gibson’s Meeting House. In connection with the church Mr. Gibson had a school, perhaps the first free school in the county.
In 1855 it was decided to build a new House of Worship. Mr. J. G. O’Neal donated the site on which to build the new church, some two and one-half miles from Gibson’s Meeting House. The sanctuary, which is the present one now in use, was erected under the supervision of Mr. Jacob Bookman. The building when finished in 1857. A marble-top communion table of crotch mahogany (still in use today) and an empire style sofa were the main features of the furnishings. The inside walls were of plaster, painted white; the benches were of dark mahogany in color. Another feature of the sanctuary was a low wall some three feet in height extending through the center of the building from the front benches to the wall separating the auditorium from the front porch. It is said that in the olden days, the ladies and girls entered the door at the right and seated themselves on the right-hand side of the wall. The gentlemen and boys entered the left door and seated themselves on that side of the barrier. When the church was restored, a portion of the wall, near the entrance doors, was removed so that persons may now move freely from one aisle to the other in that area. The auditorium of Little River Baptist Church has a gallery on three sides with entrances formerly by stairway. The black members of the organization, who came to worship in those early days, seated themselves in the gallery. Some of the old benches still remain. Perhaps the most lavish expenditure was that of a chandelier which hung by a bronze rod from a plaster medallion in the ceiling. Chains of small gold leaves hung gracefully from the medallion to each of the eight lamps of the chandelier and long crystal prisms dangled from the base of each lamp. In 1865, northern soldiers removed the chains of gold leaves and crystal prisms along with the silver communion set. The new House of Worship was dedicated in May 1858. It was generally known at that time, and indeed for years to come as Long Run Baptist Church because of the local post office of that time.
Long Run P.O., located on Highway 215 between Jenkinsville and Monticello, appears to have been the successor to McMeekin’s P.O. Research indicates that the post office was in service by 1860. J.N. O’Neal, who lived near the McMeekin plantation, was Postmaster in 1865. The community may have been named for a branch of the nearby Free’s Creek or perhaps a branch of the Little River. Later, Long Run School was established south of the post office. A single store was operating in the community in 1883. Although the post office was discontinued in the early part of this century and the school no longer exists, Long Run continues as a community name for the area encompassing St. Barnabas Episcopal, Little River Baptist, and Ebenezer Associate Reformed Presbyterian churches. (Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC)
In 1915, it was decided to divide the congregation between the communities of Monticello and Jenkinsville. The church building at Little River was abandoned. It was occasionally used for funerals and occasional homecomings, except for a period in the 1930’s when the African American Episcopal church of St. Barnabas used the building while their burned sanctuary was rebuilt. [Contribution by the Little River Baptist Church]
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