Old Bethel United Methodist Church

Address:
222 Calhoun St
Charleston, SC 29401
843-722-3470

Send to Mobile Phone
(Send this listing to a mobile phone as a FREE text message)

Email: 

Category:
Churches Methodist

Additional Company Information:
Old Bethel United Methodist Church Photograph by Lissa D'Aquisto, courtesy of City of Charleston Old Bethel United Methodist Church is the third oldest church building surviving in Charleston. The church is an architectural reminder of the significant relationship between African Americans and the Methodist Church in Charleston. Methodists conducted extensive missionary work among African Americans in South Carolina, sometimes suffering persecution for their suspected abolitionist tendencies. Indicative of the Methodist Church's philosophy of encouraging black membership, Old Bethel was founded and paid for by both black and white citizens. Construction began in 1797 and was completed in 1807. The church was originally constructed in the gabled meetinghouse style with white clapboards after a design by Francis Asbury, the first Methodist bishop in the United States. It stood at the corner of Pitt and Calhoun Streets, then the extreme northwestern part of the city. Membership in the congregation of Old Bethel was open to both free blacks and slaves. However, in 1834 a schism developed over whether blacks were to be restricted to sitting in the galleries. By 1840 the black members seceded to form their own congregation.