 
First Baptist Church
Photograph courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs
Division, Historic American Buildings Survey or Historic American
Engineering Record, Reproduction Number HABS,SC,10-CHAR,70-2
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First Baptist Church, often referred to as the "Mother Church of Southern
Baptists," is the oldest Baptist Church in the South. The church was
designed by Robert Mills and dedicated in 1822. Robert Mills considered
the First Baptist Church to be "the best specimen of correct taste in
architecture of all the modern buildings in this city." Mills described
the building as "purely Greek in its style," although it is more accurately
described as a Georgian Composition. The trim Doric portico topped with
triglyphed entablature and pediment are decidedly Greek in style, however,
they are juxtaposed Roman arches and Tuscan columns.
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Interior of First Baptist Church
Photograph courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs
Division, Historic American Buildings Survey or Historic American
Engineering Record, Reproduction Number HABS,SC,10-CHAR,70-3
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The Church was founded in 1682 and originally organized in Kittery, Maine
by the Rev. William Screven. Due to persecution, the Church remained in
Kittery for only one year. In 1683 the Baptists relocated to South Carolina.
Upon arriving in South Carolina, the Baptists first settled in Somerton,
on the Cooper River near Charleston. The first Church meetings were held
in the King Street home of William Chapman. In 1699, the present lot was
donated to the Church by William Elliot and a frame building was constructed.
During the Revolutionary War, the Church was seized by the British troops
and used as a storage facility for salt beef and other provisions. The
British commander, Lord Cornwallis, "feared the prayers of the young Baptist
minister more than the armies of Marion and Sumter." The "young Baptist
minister" he spoke of was the Rev. Richard Furman, founder of Furman University
in Greenville, South Carolina: the first Baptist college in the South.
Two other pastors of the church, the Rev. Dr. Basil Manly and the Rev.
Dr. James Petigru Boyce, founded the Southern Baptists Seminary, currently
the largest in the world. Today, the First Baptist Church remains an active
congregation and is one of more than 1400 historically significant buildings
within the Charleston Old and Historic District..
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