St. James' Church, Goose Creek, also known as the Goose Creek Church, is an Episcopal church at 100 Vestry Lane in

Goose Creek, South Carolina Goose Creek is the most populous city in Berkeley County, South Carolina, Berkeley County in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 45,946 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in South ...

. Built in the 1710s, it is one of South Carolina's oldest surviving buildings, and one of a small number of surviving early Georgian chapels in the nation. It was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 1970. and

Description and history

St. James Church is located on a wooded lot on the west side of Snake Road, between the Goose Creek Primary School and Goose Creek Road. It is a single story masonry structure, built out of stuccoed brick and covered with a clipped-gable slate roof. The building corners are quoined, and there is a line of simple brickwork at the eave. There are entrances at the centers of three sides, with flanking round-arch windows. The main entrance is on the west side, with flanking pilasters rising to a decorative frieze and gabled pediment. The interior has three aisles separating rows of 18th-century

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in c ...

s. The east end of the building has the pulpit, with an original reading stand and sounding board. The wall behind the pulpit carries rich baroque decoration, whose central feature is the seal of

George I of Great Britain George I (George Louis; ; 28 May 1660 – 11 June 1727) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Electorate of Hanover within the Holy Roman Empire from 23 January 1698 until his death in 1727. ...

. Its decorations include

cherub A cherub (; : cherubim; ''kərūḇ'', pl. ''kərūḇīm'') is one type of supernatural being in the Abrahamic religions. The numerous depictions of cherubim assign to them many different roles, such as protecting the entrance of the Garden of ...

s in stucco and a pelican feeding her young.HABS Report SC-99, HABS data pages The

Province of Carolina The Province of Carolina was a colony of the Kingdom of England (1663–1707) and later the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1712) that existed in North America and the Caribbean from 1663 until the Carolinas were partitioned into North and Sou ...

formally established the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

in 1706, dividing South Carolina into six parishes. The Saint James parish church was built 1713-19 by English settlers from

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

, and is one of the oldest Episcopal churches in the United States. The building has seen some modest alterations, and its walls were strengthened with iron tie rods in 1844. The church was damaged by an earthquake in 1886, which collapsed the west gable end. The original churchyard is now surrounded by a brick wall. Buried in the churchyard is

Ralph Izard Ralph Izard (January 23, 1741/1742May 30, 1804) was an American politician who served as president pro tempore of the United States Senate in 1794. Early life Izard was born at "The Elms" near Charleston, South Carolina. He was the son of H ...

, a former

U.S. senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

from

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

who served as president pro tempore of the Senate in 1794.

Robert Jordan James Oliver Rigney Jr. (October 17, 1948 – September 16, 2007), better known by his pen name Robert Jordan," Robert Jordan" was the name of the protagonist in the 1940 Hemingway novel ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', though this is not how the n ...

, author of ''

The Wheel of Time ''The Wheel of Time'' is a series of high fantasy novels by the American author Robert Jordan, with American author Brandon Sanderson as co-writer of the final three installments. Originally planned as a trilogy, ''The Wheel of Time'' came to ...

'' series of fantasy novels, also has his ashes buried here. A monument to John Parker (1759–1832) was moved there in 1952 from the nearby Hayes Estate, for preservation.

References

External links

* *
St. James Church, Goose Creek Cemetery Inscriptions
at Find a Grave.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint James Church, Goose Creek, South Carolina National Historic Landmarks in South Carolina Anglican churches in South Carolina Churches in Berkeley County, South Carolina Colonial South Carolina English-American culture in South Carolina Anglican Church in North America church buildings in the United States Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina Churches completed in 1708 18th-century Episcopal church buildings Historic American Buildings Survey in South Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Berkeley County, South Carolina 1708 establishments in South Carolina Goose Creek, South Carolina Former Episcopal church buildings in South Carolina Anglican realignment congregations 18th-century Anglican church buildings in the United States

Description and history

See also

References

External links