Strawberry Chapel, 1000 Strawberry Chapel Road, Cordesville

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS SC,8-CORD.V,2-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Stoney, - Plantations of the Garolina Low Country -TTUJ 4 /ig/i ADDENDUM TO: HABS STRAWBERRY CHAPEL HABS SC,8-CORD.V,2- Strawberry Chapel Road Cordesville vicinity Berkeley County South Carolina WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA REDUCED COPIES OF MEASURED DRAWINGS FIELD RECORDS HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior C Street NW Washington, DC ADDENDUM TO: STRAWBERRY CHAPEL HABS No. (Page 3) HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY STRAWBERRY CHAPEL This report is an addendum to 2 pages of history previously transmitted to the Library of Congress.

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS SC,8-CORD.V,2-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Strawberry Chapel is a significant reminder of the organization of parishes and plantations in the South Carolina Lowcountry. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the entire nation depended on the agricultural economy. Much of that agricultural export resulted in South Carolina s plantations. However, this agricultural pursuit meant families and enslaved workers lived outside of the range of access to cities and larger towns. Creating their own community within the realm of the rural bounds of plantations and communities became imperative to continue social pursuits, such as attending church.

Strawberry Chapel is a remnant of that system, in which those who contributed greatly to the economy, but could not participate as regularly in society of the larger city, created their own parish community to worship and socialize. Architecturally, Strawberry Chapel retains its historic Lowcountry character with wooded areas and rural environment and has not changed significantly since initial development in Evocative of the classic Anglican chapel of ease plan, Strawberry is a simple, yet effective architectural form that represents typical chapel from the parish church system in the South.

The Chapel has undergone very few changes since its construction, with the stewards only working on elements that maintain the safety of the Chapel, and its parishioners (such as the roof and broken windows). Strawberry Chapel has changed so little, that even the landscape is largely the same, with pathways that lead to family grave enclosures and the Chapel itself. The Chapel is still used for four services a year, and the graveyard onsite is still in use and lies adjacent to the Chapel.

The Chapel is also significant as it predates the antebellum heyday of plantation culture, and is the only remaining remnant of the Town of Childsbury, laid out but never completed by James Child in the early After the main church for the parish, Biggin Church, burned, Strawberry Chapel became the main parish church. Though the chapel still stands today with its furnishings, some of its most culturally valued pieces are in the Charleston Museum. Two of the oldest pieces of Southern silver remaining are Strawberry Chapel s communion silver from The Chapel is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as well as part of the Cooper River National Historic District. Description: The building is constructed of brick masonry with a Flemish bond pattern.

There are several campaigns of unpigmented stucco work evident on the exterior walls. The nave of the Chapel measures 41 9 on the east-west axis and 32 6 on the north-south axis. The Sacristy, centered on the north elevation, extends northerly 14 6 on the east-west axis and 14 5 on the north-south axis. STRAWBERRY CHAPEL HABS No. (Page 4) The Chapel s jerkin head roof is one of its defining architectural features. The truncated hipped roof is topped with synthetic slate shingles that are color matched to resemble previous grey slate shingles. The Sacristy s roof is gabled, and also topped with synthetic shingles. The foundation of Strawberry Chapel is constructed of brick that is set below grade at an indeterminable depth. The principal entryways are through wood six paneled, double doors.

Following Georgian principles of symmetry and proportion, each door is twice as tall as it is wide. Accordingly, all doors measure approximately 9 in height and 4 6 in width. The door connecting the Sacristy to the nave is the most historically intact door, having only been re-hinged to swing into the Sacristy. The exterior door into the Sacristy is a modern, steel security door. Other modern security measures visible along the exterior are iron bars grating the southern and western doors. The windows are 12 over 12 and measure approximately 5 6 in height and 3 in width. Above these sash windows and exterior doors are compass head windows, also known as fanlights, measuring 1 7 in height and 3 6 in width, with keystones fashioned from stucco covered brick.

The eastern window on the south elevation has a keystone divided into four sections; this is indicative of repair work, as the rest of the keystones have three parts. All of the windows within the Chapel are recessed into the interior walls and feature wood sills. The sash windows wood shutters with metal latches. In some instances, the raised three-panel shutters have been replaced with flat shutters. On the east and west elevations there are oxeye windows, three feet in diameter, recessed into the walls. Each oxeye window has four keystones ornamenting the architrave. There are no windows in the Sacristy, though the east side shows a recessed window infill, and the west side shows a flush wall with evidence of a prior window. The floors of Strawberry Chapel are masonry tile.

There are six rows of pews in each column before the central passageway (from west door to east door), while there are four more rows of pews in each column before the altar. The tiles underneath the rear six rows of pews, on either side of the main axis, have been skimmed with concrete. The concrete layer has been scored to resemble the original tile. There are two columns of pews on either side of the west door. The Sacristy has a floor made of poured concrete, unstained and without visible scoring or expansion joints. The interior walls are plaster applied directly to the brick. After the plaster began to fail, the walls were skimmed with sheet rock mud. The ceiling measures a height of 19 4 at the apex of the barrel vault and consists of plaster over lathe.

The south elevation has three bays with a central door. There are windows on either side of the door. The door has a transom light. Next to the window on the southeast side there is a marble plaque with an inscription to John Jacob [last name illegible]. The east elevation has an oxeye window above the chancel, with two windows on opposite sides of the centered chancel, demarcated by a wooden chancel rail with rounded spindles. Above the chancel, centered under the circular window is a decoration that reads Glory to God in the Highest, which stewards of the building note is made from pine cones and pine resin. There is a gate on the north side of the chancel rail in order to allow access to the altar. The flooring of the chancel is a modern tile resembling the rest of the Chapel floor.

Above the altar is a decorative shelf. A freestanding wood pulpit from which services are led is also along the east elevation. The west wall is STRAWBERRY CHAPEL HABS No. (Page 5) almost identical to the east elevation. However, instead of a chancel and altar, there is a door with a fanlight through which people may enter the church. The Sacristy connects to the Chapel through the door in the north elevation. The Sacristy is entered from an outside door, or accessed from the Chapel, the original exterior north door. There is an approximate six-inch difference in elevation between the floor level of the Chapel and the Sacristy. The north elevation two double hung windows, on either side of the central door. A pipe that is attached to a metal stove goes through the northwest window.

There is a marble plaque between this window and the door, a metal plaque between the door and the northeast window, and a final plaque on the wall east of the window. History: Strawberry Chapel was established as a parochial chapel of ease within the lower district of St. John s Parish, Berkeley by the Church Act of Part of the much larger mission undertaken by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the original ten parishes established by the Church Act would later become the Diocese of South Carolina. 1 Englishman James Child was granted acres in the Carolina Colony in at the lower end of St. John s Parish, Berkeley.

Child laid out a town on a bluff overlooking the western branch of Cooper River called Childsbury in approximately The plans for the town called for lots to be given to a college, a free school, a minister s house, and an acre and a half of land for a church or chapel. Of these institutions, the school existed for some time, but it was the Parochial Chapel of Ease that has remained as the only lasting indication of the short lived town. 2 Within the Church of England, the distinction as parochial mean that the vicar or curate of the chapel of ease maintain the rights of baptizing and burying, apart from the parish church. The parochial chapel of ease was built originally as a timber frame structure in and served the people of the lower section of the larger St. John s Parish, Berkeley.

The parish was the largest of the original ten in South Carolina, and subdivided into Upper, Middle, and Lower. This Chapel served those who could not make the long journey to the main parish church, known as Biggin Church, near Moncks Corner. The parish rector was to hold services on the fourth Sunday of each month. 3 By the timber frame building had deteriorated to a condition that could not even sustain repair. A new brick chapel replaced the timber building and still remains nearly three centuries later. 4 Within a few decades of the chapel construction, the Town of Childsbury surrounding the chapel virtually disappeared.

Biggin Church was destroyed several times, first in and again by the British in By Henry Laurens reported to the Diocesan Convention that the Church had 1 Albert Sidney Thomas, A Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina being a continuation of Dalcho s account, (Columbia: 2 Samuel Gaillard Stoney, Samuel Lapham, and Albert Simons, Plantations of the Carolina Low Country (Charleston: Carolina Art Association, 3 Frederick Dalcho, An Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina (Charleston: E. Thayer, 4 Louis P. Nelson, The Beauty of Holiness: Anglicanism & Architecture in Colonial South Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, STRAWBERRY CHAPEL HABS No. (Page 6) again fallen into ruin.

5 Following the Civil War, the church disbanded and Strawberry Chapel began to fill the role of the parish church, and has remained in nearly continuous use since. 6 Original furnishings of the chapel no longer remain. The original location of the pulpit is unknown, but it may have stood along the north wall, just east of the doorway to the Sacristy due to known patterns of denomination at this time. In the early nineteenth century it was likely moved to the east end of the building to conform with the pattern that was developing among the Protestant denominations in America. 7 Around the year repairs were made to Strawberry and a new organ was installed. In the congregation was gifted a Bible and Prayer Book. Strawberry also received a chestnut alter, a credenza shelf, and a brass cross.

Additionally, a new silver Communion Service from Joseph Rogers and Son (Sheffield England) was purchased for 8 In the Chapel suffered considerable earthquake damage, and the galleries at the west end were removed. The Bishop s Earthquake Funds paid for repairs. Again in extensive renovations were undertaken, along with the installation of another new organ. The costs amounted to paid from the church fund, given by Isaac Ball and $50 given by H. H. Ficken. In concrete fence posts and wire fences were installed around the property, and a new altar and service book with a brass rest were given. 9 In Strawberry Chapel s communion silver which had been buried during Sherman s March through the south had been discovered on Comingtee Plantations under an old rice barn.

This included a silver gilt chalice, believed to have been brought to America by the Huguenots and a paten and a chalice given to the Chapel by King George I. 10

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS SC,8-CORD.V,2-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Regional Planning Council. Historic Preservation Plan: Berkeley- Charleston-Dorchester Region. Charleston: Regional Planning Council, June Dalcho, Frederick, M. D. An Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina. Charleston: E. Thayer, Hudgins, Carter L., et al., eds. The Vernacular Architecture of Charleston and the Lowcountry, A Field Guide. Charleston: Historic Charleston Foundation, Johnson, William Henry. Scrapbook, vol. 1. South Carolina Historical Society. Accessed through Lowcountry Digital Library. 5 Dalcho, An Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina. 6 Thomas, A Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina. 7 Carter L.

Hudgins, et al., eds., The Vernacular Architecture of Charleston and the Lowcountry, A Field Guide (Charleston: Historic Charleston Foundation, 8 Thomas, A Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina. 9 Ibid. 10 Clifford L. Legerton and Edward G. Lilly, Historic Churches of Charleston, South Carolina (Charleston: Legerton STRAWBERRY CHAPEL HABS No. (Page 7) Legerton, Clifford L., and Edward G. Lilly. Historic Churches of Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston: Legerton, Linder, Suzanne Cameron. Anglican Churches in Colonial South Carolina: Their History and Architecture. Charleston: Wyrick & Company, Nelson, Louis P. The Beauty of Holiness: Anglicanism & Architecture in Colonial South Carolina.

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, Preservation Society of Charleston. The Churches of Charleston and the Lowcountry. Edited by Mary Moore Jacoby. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, Smith, Henry A. M. Some Forgotten Towns in Lower South Carolina. The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 14, No. 4 Stoney, Samuel Gaillard, Samuel Lapham, and Albert Simons. Plantations of the Carolina Low Country. Charleston: Carolina Art Association, Thomas, Albert Sidney.

A Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina, being a continuation of Dalcho s account, Columbia: Historians: Branden Gunn, Kimberly Hlavin, Katherine Howard, Rucha Kamath, Dana Marks, Chelsea Payne, Kerri Ross, Sada Stewart, Christopher Tenny, Kendra Waters and Kyunhea West. Members of the Class of Masters of Science in Historic Preservation program with Clemson University and College of Charleston. Under the supervision of Professor Amalia Leifeste and Dr. Carter Hudgins. Report completed in December

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS SC,8-CORD.V,2-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Members of the Class of Masters of Science in Historic Preservation program with Clemson University and College of Charleston completed historical research, documentation drawings, conditions reporting, treatment recommendations and interpretations. The HABS documentation was submitted to the Peterson Prize student drawing competition.