First African Baptist Church – Image courtesy of the Segars Collection One of thousands of historic addresses – sites across lowcountry S.C., to explore and enjoy on the pages of Roots and Recall!
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Preservationist, (L-R) R&R’s Co-founder – J.I. Robinson, Mike Bedenbaugh – Palmetto Trust, and author Jim Kibler.
Photo contributed to R&R by Gazie Nagle @ www.fineartbygazie.com
In 1747, Elizabeth Bellinger, widow of the second Landgrave Edmund Bellinger, gave fifty acres of the Tomotley Barony for the purpose of erecting the Anglican parish church. It was located right next to William Bull’s Sheldon Plantation settlement. Trustees for building the church were William Bull, Stephen Bull, Robert Troup, John Green, and James DeVeaux. In 1751, the cornerstone of the Prince William Parish Church was laid, and the structure began largely at the expense of the Bull family. In 1752, the Commons House of Assembly allocated six hundred pounds currency towards the construction of the church, and by 1757 the church interior was completed and the first services were conducted. “The man most responsible for building the Prince William Parish Church was William Bull I, who did not live to see it completed. He was buried in the place of highest honor—inside the church before the altar. Prince William Parish
Church was a grand edifice symbolic of the wealth that was being produced from the rivers and swamps which surrounded it. When it was completed, contemporary observers called the Prince William Parish Church the finest country church in America.
Indeed, recent scholarship has revealed that Prince William Parish Church was the first temple-form neoclassical building in America, and as such, it was the prototype of the Greek Revival architecture so characteristic of the antebellum south. The church was built from, or adapted from, the work of English architect James Gibb’s unused plans for St. Mary-le-Strand Church in London. The plans were probably brought to South Carolina by William Bull II, who had many mutual acquaintances with the architect during the years of Bull’s education in Europe.”
(Information from: A History of Beaufort County, Vol. I, Rowland, Moore and G.C. Rogers, Jr. – Un. of S.C. Press, 1996)
Courtesy of the S.C. Dept. of Archives and History
Photo contributed to R&R by Gazie Nagle @ www.fineartbygazie.com
Images(s) and information from: The Library of Congress – HABS Photo Collection
Images(s) and information from: The Library of Congress – HABS Photo Collection
Mid 20th century post card of the home. Courtesy of the AFLLC Collection – 2017
Image courtesy of the SC Dept. of Archives and History. Ned Brown, photographer.
Images(s) and information from: The Library of Congress – HABS Photo Collection
