Left Oblique	Right Elevation and Cemetery	Cemetery

Richland Presbyterian Church is significant as a rare virtually unaltered example of the nineteenth century rural, vernacular church. Its congregation was probably the first organized Presbyterian church in lower Richland County, having its roots in a mission Sunday School established there in 1873. This church was not constructed until 1883, when people of the community with both Lutheran and Presbyterian backgrounds joined together to erect a building on land purchased from the Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was dedicated with eleven members by the Reverend John L. Girardeau, Presbyterian theologian, in May 1884. The building remained in use until 1922, when a new brick church in the town of Eastover was completed and occupied. The effort toward relocation had begun in 1919, when the congregation decided that more people could be served if a move to the nearby town was undertaken. The meeting house form building’s primary feature is an octagonal entrance tower on its façade. The tower has a Gothic-arched portal in its forward facet, with single windows in flanking facets. Louvered vents are located in the upper stage of the tower. An octagonal hipped roof with flared eaves rises to a metal finial at the top of the tower. The spartan interior of the church has original plaster walls and board-and-batten ceiling. An iron fence surrounds the adjacent cemetery. Listed in the National Register March 27, 1986.

View the complete text of the nomination form for this National Register property. In addition, the Historic Resources of Lower Richland County, ca. 1795-ca. 1935 includes historical background information for this and other related National Register properties.

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