342 Meeting Street
The Yorkville Enquirer reported on Jan. 27, 1892 – “Major J.K. Marshall of Chester has received a proposal from 2nd Pres. Church of Charleston, S.C. to sing in their choir at a salary of $75.00 per month.”
City Directories and History: Constructed circa 1811; restored 1990-91 / James and John Gordon, architect-builders
“Organized as an outgrowth of the First Scots Presbyterian Church and officially known as the Second Presbyterian Church of the City and Suburbs of Charleston, the congregation attracted a new generation of Scottish merchants who planned an ambitious building outside the boundaries of the city. This church faces the public space known initially as Wragg Square and later dubbed Ashmead Place. It was designed and built by James and John Gordon, Scottish masons and builders who subsequently built St. Paul’s Church at 126 Coining Street in Radcliffeborough.
A portico in the Tuscan order with a deep entablature and ribbed frieze supports a pediment in which there is a large lunette window. Similar fanlights appear over the doors. Lacking side doorways, the south facade of the church features a fully developed pediment supported by a wide entablature and engaged Tuscan columns. The spire, intended by an early minister of the church to be a “finger pointing upward,” was never completed. Its rusticated base, decorated with bull’s-eye windows, supports a single octagonal cupola supported by
Corinthian pilasters. The first minister of the church, the Reverend Andrew Flynn, was replaced after about twenty years by the Reverend Dr. Thomas Smyth, an Irish Presbyterian minister who kept close ties with Calvinists in the British Isles. Severe acoustical problems inspired church leaders to alter the interior in 1833 by raising the floor three feet and lowering the ceiling by sixteen feet. After severe damage by Hurricane Hugo in 1989 the original ceiling height was restored, and remnants of a plaster
decoration incorporating the seal of South Carolina and other devices served to permit the restoration of this ornament in the area above the Venetian stained-glass window on the east wall.”
Information from: The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston – Author, for the Historic Charleston Foundation, 1997
Also see PDF this page: GUIDE TO PRESBYTERIAN NAMES AND PLACES IN SC by J.B. Martin, III – 1989
Access information on numerous Charleston County and South Carolina churches, by clicking the highlighted S.C. Digital Library name.
Other sources: Charleston Tax Payers of Charleston, SC in 1860-61, Dwelling Houses of Charleston by Alice R.H. Smith – 1917, Charleston 1861 Census Schedule, and a 1872 Bird’s Eye View of Charleston, S.C. The Hist. Charleston Foundation may also have additional data at: Past Perfect
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IMAGE GALLERY via R&R
IMAGE GALLERY via photographer Bill Segars – 2005