63 Society Street
City Directories and History: ST. PAUL’S CATHOLIC CHURCH (GERMAN CHURCH) Constructed circa 1840; renovated as a Catholic Church 1861; altered late-1940s
“First constructed as a rectangular building to house a lecture room for the Second Presbyterian Church (replacing an earlier lecture room destroyed in the fire), the current edifice was subsequently acquired by the Philharmonic Society and then by the Diocese of Charleston, serving the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy as the locus for a free school. With the desire for a new parish to serve German Catholics in the area, Bishop Lynch appointed the Reverend William Beerschneider as priest. After the raising of funds, the architect Louis Barbot was chosen to convert the lecture room into a church, and his additions of Romanesque style details and steeple were complete by 1861. After the war, dissension over the use of the German language and the shrinking of the congregation resulted in closure of St. Paul’s in 1869. In the 1880s some of the congregation moved to a new church on Wentworth Street (now the site of St. Katherine’s convent, a modern building at 36 Wentworth Street) and the old St. Paul’s was again used as St. Mary’s School. Acquired by the Palmetto Post of the American Legion in 1947, the building was altered extensively on the ground floor, the windows of the sanctuary were filled in, and the openings of the remaining portion of the steeple were blocked.”
Information from: The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston for the Historic Charleston Foundation, 1997
Other sources of interest: Charleston Tax Payers of Charleston, SC in 1860-61 and the Dwelling Houses of Charleston by Alice R.H. Smith – 1917 The HCF may also have additional data at: Past Perfect and further research can be uncovered at: Charleston 1861 Census Schedule or The Charleston City Guide of 1872
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