Old Stone Church Road (Off #76)
City Directories and History: The Old Stone Church, measuring 35 – 55 feet, is significant architecturally as a masonry adaptation of meeting house architecture and as a representative of the early pioneer church in South Carolina. Many prominent men are buried in its cemetery. On October 13, 1789, the congregation of Hopewell-Keowee Church asked to be
taken into the Presbytery of South Carolina. Construction of the Old Stone Church began in 1797, replacing the congregation’s log meeting house that had burned. The natural fieldstone rectangular structure with medium gable roof was completed in 1802, John Rusk contractor. It is six bays deep with high fenestration. The windows are the size of its doorways, all of which are topped with a flat arch. Exterior stairs lead to the slave gallery at the rear of the church. During the 1890s, the Old Stone Church and Cemetery Commission was organized, a wall put around the graveyard, and repairs made to preserve the old building. Listed in the National Register November 5, 1971. (Courtesy of South Carolina Department of Archives and History)
Old Stone Church – When the line dividing Pendleton District into Anderson and Pickens Districts was run in 1826, the old Stone Church Area was in Pickens District, and subsequently in 1868 when Pickens District was divided into Oconee and Pickens Counties, the Stone Church was again in Pickens County, and remained so until about forty years ago when a local agreement was formed between Clemson School District of Oconee County and Calhoun District of Pickens County by which Oconee County was to receive the taxes and enrollment of the children of the Stone Church area and direct the school activities.
At first the Presbyterians of the Seneca River area, led principally by Generals Robert Anderson and Andrew Pickens, built a log church building in which to worship, but as time passed the structure became inadequate; thus in 1797 they built a very imposing structure of field stones which became known as The Stone Church now called The Old Stone Church. In the great cemetery many famous personages are buried, including Generals
Anderson and Pickens. The church and great cemetery are near the State Highway leading from Pendleton to Clemson College.
(Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC)
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IMAGE GALLERY via photographer Bill Segars – 2004