South Carolina Department of Archives and History
National Register Properties in South Carolina

Old Stone Church and Cemetery, Pickens County (U.S. Hwy. 76 & S.C. Sec. Rd. 37, Pendleton vicinit)

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Right Oblique Left Elevation Window Detail Slave Gallery

The Old Stone Church 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. 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.

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