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St. Michael's Church | Charleston


Information

Landmark: St. Michael's Church
City: Charleston
Country: USA South Carolina
Continent: North America

St. Michael's Church, Charleston, USA South Carolina, North America

Overview

St.

Michael's Church stands as revered symbol of Charleston's colonial legacy deeply rooted in revolutionary history and spiritual heritage.

This stately church has stood as a beacon since mid-18th century at Broad and Meeting Streets intersection famously known as Four Corners of Law.

Its white steeple and clock tower remain central features of Charleston's skyline and it stays an active Episcopal parish still today.

St Michael's Church was erected between 1751 and 1761 on site of earlier St Philip's Church Charleston's original Anglican congregation.

City officials decided rather hastily on building a new church after St Philip's had relocated onto Church Street.

St Martin-in-the-Fields in London heavily influenced design of building done thoroughly in Georgian style.

George Washington attended worship services here during his 1791 Southern Tour sitting in pew number 43 still preserved with a memorial plaque today.

British forces utilized a church as barracks during American Revolution and pretty badly damaged its original somewhat ornate structure.

Original English bells were spirited away to England as plunder but later mysteriously reappeared back home quite inexplicably years afterward.

St Michael's survived intense shelling during the tumultuous Civil War and remained fairly intact afterwards somehow.

A signal tower for Confederate army stood prominently as steeple.

It underwent extensive repairs after war and some fittings were replaced or painstakingly restored including a rather large clock and old organ.

Georgian ecclesiastical design manifests in the church with meticulous symmetry and deliberately restrained ornamentation emphasizing understated proportion very effectively.

Structure built of brick is covered in stucco and lavishly whitewashed with ornate classical details like sturdy Doric columns beneath triangular pediments.

Steeple and Clock Tower stand prominently with steeple soaring 186 feet high making it pretty much a signature Charleston landmark.

A historic Eighteenth-century clock mechanism and chime of eight bells mostly recast in England feature prominently within clock and bell tower.

Inside a high pulpit stands prominently amidst white box pews and colonial-era tablets listing benefactors and commandments on weathered wooden galleries.

A pipe organ originally built by Henry Erben in 1840s provides music for services and remains highly regarded as a historic organ in region.

St Michael's churchyard cemetery contains some of Charleston's most prominent historical figures amidst quietly weathered headstones beneath ancient gnarled trees.

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was a somewhat obscure signer of U.

S.

Constitution and fought bravely as Revolutionary War officer and later served as ambassador.

John Rutledge served as Governor of South Carolina and later became U.

S.

Supreme Court Chief Justice remarkably quickly thereafter.

Various luminaries from bygone eras like colonial times and revolutionary fervor and bloody civil strife lie in eternal repose here making it sacred ground steeped deeply in history.

St Michael's Church stands weirdly at an odd urban crossroads embodying God's law roughly alongside several other symbolic establishments nearby.

Municipal law governs operations at Charleston City Hall pretty thoroughly downtown.

State law dictates operations at Charleston County Courthouse.

Federal law governs operations inside U.

S.

Post Office and Federal Courthouse.

Blending civic heritage and spiritual significance rather majestically at a singular crossroads this unusual configuration lends location profound symbolic importance.

St.

Michael's Church has functioned uninterruptedly as an Episcopal congregation pretty much since being fully constructed back in 1761.

It is designated as a National Historic Landmark and protected under Charleston's stringent preservation ordinances.

Church retains historic form amidst earthquakes war hurricanes and urban sprawl remarkably still functioning pretty much as it always has.

Restoration efforts have painstakingly preserved its clock bells and ornate interior remarkably true to original painstaking craftsmanship.

St Michael's stays open for worship and guided tours remaining a functioning church with Sunday services and prayer on weekdays and welcoming tourists.

Visitors can gaze upon George Washington's prominently labeled pew in a historic display arranged reverently nearby old artifacts.

Charleston's colonial past unfolds quietly in churchyard precincts open sporadically during daylight hours offering glimpses of old revolution-era relics.

Charleston's most antiquated spiritual edifice remains standing with remarkable longevity somehow still proudly extant.

St Martin in Fields London gets represented by quite an intricate architectural model eerily fashioned with painstaking attention.

George Washington's original pew sits prominently on display beneath gnarled wooden beams in a rather dimly lit chamber.

Historic chime bells ring out loudly alongside an 18th-century clock in somewhat dilapidated condition.

Major American historical figures rest in this revered final resting place beneath solemn stone markers and weathered epitaphs.

Situated squarely at Charleston's storied Four Corners of Law with great ostensible significance and considerable historical heft nearby.

Survived tumultuous Revolutionary War and brutal Civil War amidst numerous devastating natural disasters utterly ravaging entire regions.

Still serving quite remarkably as a house of quiet deeply rooted worship and strong vibrant community anchor nowadays somehow.

St.

Michael's Church embodies American history vividly in Charleston's heart as a remarkably vibrant chapter spanning over two and a half centuries.



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