Bethesda Presbyterian Church

A National Historic Landmark. Built in 1822. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

From the record

“Bethesda Presbyterian Church is a historic church at 502 DeKalb Street in Camden, South Carolina. A National Historic Landmark, the main church building was built in 1822 and is one of few surviving churches designed by 19th-century American architect Robert Mills.”
Wikipedia article Bethesda Presbyterian Church (Camden, South Carolina), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 17 National Register listings published here for Kershaw County · listed in 1985 · category: Building · built in 1822, by Robert Mills · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

National Historic Landmark. The highest federal designation, held by about 2,600 places in the country against roughly 100,000 Register listings.
What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building, 1 object as contributing to the listing.
Address. 502 Dekalb St., Camden, 29020
When was it listed? February 1985
Category. building
Census division. Camden
When was it built? 1822
Architect. Robert Mills
National Register reference number. 85003258 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

240 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 240 fires within 5 miles of Bethesda Presbyterian Church between 1992 and 2020, burning about 852 acres in total. 11 started naturally. 7 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	80
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	77
Misuse of fire by a minor	24
Equipment and vehicle use	19
Smoking	19
Natural	11
Arson/incendiarism	7
Other causes	1
Recreation and ceremony	1
Railroad operations and maintenance	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
4 September 2011	Misuse of fire by a minor	6.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
4 September 1997	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
30 September 2007	Smoking	2.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
3 September 1995	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
26 September 2019	Debris and open burning	under an acre	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
26 September 1998	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
24 September 2010	Debris and open burning	under an acre	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named
23 September 2013	Debris and open burning	under an acre	South Carolina Forestry Commission	not named

Every fire recorded in Kershaw County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Bethesda Presbyterian Church: 1 unknown, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Titanium, Thorium, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Hasskamp Mine	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer	Sedimentary
	Wateree River	Iron, Titanium, Thorium	Unknown	Placer , Modern , Fluvial

Every working recorded in Kershaw County

Storms near this property

60 of 101 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Camden, the town this property stands in, in 101 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 67 thunderstorm wind, 24 hail, 5 tornado, 3 flash flood. The reports record 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 1997	Tornado (F2)	Camden	1 hurt, $225,000	An F2 tornado produced winds to 135 mph. Numerous trees were down. Two homes had major damage and three had minor damage. One mobile home was destroyed and three others had minor damage. One person was injured.
September 2004	Tornado (F3)	Camden	1 hurt	An F3 tornado demolished several mobile homes and severely damaged cinder block horse stables at a horse farm. A large horse trailer was lifted up and placed on top of the stable. Several outbuildings were destroyed and numerous trees and powerlines were down.
July 2013	Lightning	Camden	$180,000	EM reported 9 homes were struck by lightning and damaged.
April 2011	Hail	Camden	$120,000	Sheriff dispatch reported from golfball to baseball size in Camden. Reportes of several vehicles damaged along with trees down.
April 2011	Hail	Camden	$120,000	Storm chaser reported 2 inch hail in Camden.
September 1999	Flash Flood	Camden	$50,000	Sheriff reported rapid flooding in low lying areas of Camden with water depths around 2 feet in downtown and other areas.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$36,000	Sheriff reported trees and powerlines down across the Lugoff and Camden areas, some trees were on homes and vehicles.
April 2011	Hail	Camden	$20,000	Public reported golfball size hail near Camden.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$20,000	Camden FD reported trees and powerlines down.
July 2010	Flash Flood	Camden	$12,000	EM reported 3 to 5 inches of rain in a 3 hour period causing flash flooding and closing several roads. One road washed out completely and another had a sink hole develop that filled up and closed the road. Many ponds overflowed their banks as did streams and creeks around the area.
January 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$8,000	Dispatch reported trees down from Camden to Bethune.
February 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$8,000	Sheriff reported trees down throughout the county.
April 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$8,000	Electric company reported powerlines down in Camden.
April 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$8,000	DOT reported trees down in Camden.
April 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$8,000	Sheriff reported several trees down in Camden.
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$6,000	Sheriff reported trees down in Camden.
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$6,000	Sheriff reported trees down in Camden.
October 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$5,000	Black River Electric CO-OP reported trees on powerlines in the Camden area.
January 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$5,000	Police reported severe thunderstorm winds took down numerous trees and powerlines.
August 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$4,000	Dispatch reported trees and powerlines down with outages.
June 2013	Flood	Camden	$4,000	Highway Patrol reported a driver called in and said 2 feet of water covered Mt. Olivet road in a low lying area near I-20.
January 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$4,000	Sheriff reported a few trees down in the Camden area.
December 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$4,000	Sheriff reported a few trees down on Porter Road and at the race track.
July 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$4,000	Police department reported trees down on Broad Street and Hwy 97.
March 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$3,000	Dispatch reported a couple of trees and powerlines down on Mill Street and alson Hwy 97 near the land fill.
June 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$1,000	Thunderstorm winds blew down trees, powerlines, and caused other minor damage in Elgin and in Camden.
February 2024	Hail	Camden	$100	Public report of pea size hail in Camden.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	$100	Broadcast media relayed a report and photo, via social media, of a medium size tree that fell onto the westbound lanes of US Hwy 1/601 (W. Dekalb St.) between Bay Ln and the bridge over Camp Creek. Time estimated.
March 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Kershaw County dispatch reported numerous trees down throughout the county.
May 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Kershaw county dispatch reported trees down on Tickle Hill Rd at SC 34. Time estimated by radar.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Kershaw County dispatch reports numerous trees and power lines down throughout the county. Time estimated by radar.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Downed trees blocked Hasty Rd. Time estimated based on radar.
August 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Kershaw County Sheriff Dispatch reported numerous trees and power lines down throughout the county. Damage reported near Blythewood to Arcadia Lakes, and eastward towards Camden.
May 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Kershaw Hwy maintenance reported a large tree blocked the road on Pitts Street at Lloyd Street. Time estimated by radar.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Highway Patrol reported a tree down on I20 at exit 98 westbound.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Trees were downed along Lakeshore Dr in Camden. Time estimated.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	SCHP report trees blocking roadway on Broad St in Camden. Time estimated.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Tree on a power line along Gardner St near US Hwy 1.
March 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Kershaw Co dispatch reported power lines down on Mill St at Hampton St. Time estimated based on radar.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Numerous trees down, and power outages, in and around Camden. Time estimated.
February 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Kershaw Co Highway Dept reported trees down on US Hwy 601/US Hwy 521 in Camden.
May 2016	Hail	Camden	-	Reported nickel size hail near Camden.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Trees down and dime size hail.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Trees down at Camden Archives building.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Trees and power lines down in and around the city of Camden. Power out throughout the city.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Sheriff Dispatch reported a couple large limbs down and some trees down in Camden.
July 2009	Hail	Camden	-	Public reported golf ball size hail on US 1 one mile east of Camden.
April 2009	Hail	Camden	-	Sheriff reported nickel size hail near hwy 1.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	SKYWARN spotter reported large branches down in Camden.
June 2009	Hail	Camden	-	Public reported nickel size hail in Camden.
August 2009	Hail	Camden	-	Penny size hail reported along Lucknow Road near Stokes Road. Tree limbs also reported down along the highway.
June 2008	Hail	Camden	-	Sheriff Dispatch reported golf ball size hail along I-20 between the Camden and Lugoff exits.
May 2008	Hail	Camden	-	Sheriff reported quarter size hail in Camden and also the Corner Pantry southeast of the city.
June 2007	Hail	Camden	-	EM reported 3/4 inch hail near Westville around hwys 521 and 601.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Trees and powerlines were down.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	Trees were down in Camden.
August 2007	Hail	Camden	-	County official reported penny size hail in Camden and Antioch. Time estimated.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Camden	-	EM reoprted several large trees down near Antioch.
April 2006	Hail	Camden	-	Shepard Communications reported nickel size hail.
April 2006	Hail	Camden	-	Sheriff reported nickel size hail in Camden and Northeast along hwy 1.

Every storm recorded in Kershaw County

Newspapers printed here

6,600 digitised pages

14 papers published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 1,771 issues, 6,600 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.

Newspaper	Published
The Camden Weekly Journal	1853 to 1861
The Camden Daily Journal	1864
The Tri-Weekly Journal	1865
The Camden Journal	1836 to 1851
The Camden Journal	1866 to 1891
Semi-Weekly Camden Journal	1851 to 1852
Camden Journal	1852
The Weekly Journal	1865
The Camden Weekly Journal	1865 to 1866
The Camden Journal	1864
Journal and Confederate	1865
The Tri-Weekly Journal	1865
The Camden Confederate	1861 to 1865
Camden Commercial Courier	1837 to 1838

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Robert Mills Courthouse	0.5 miles	1971
Historic Camden Revolutionary War Restoration	1.2 miles	1969
Seaboard Air Line Railway Depot	1.2 miles	2000
Kendall Mill Historic District	1.3 miles	1982
Mulberry Plantation (Chesnut House)	2.8 miles	1980
Cool Springs	3.3 miles	1989

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 85003258 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Kershaw County	All 17 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.