Name/Title
342 Meeting Street (Second Presbyterian Church)Entry/Object ID
MEETING.342.1Scope and Content
Constructed ca. 1811; restored 1990-91. James and John Gordon, architect-builders. Organized as an outgrowth of the First (Scots) Presbyterian Church and officially known as the Second Presbyterian Church of the City and Suburbs of Charleston, the congregation attracted a new generation of Scottish merchants who planned an ambitious building outside the boundaries of the city. This church faces the public space known initially as Wragg Square and later dubbed Ashmead Place. It was designed and built by James and John Gordon, Scottish masons and builders who subsequently built St. Paul's Church at 126 Coming Street in Radcliffeborough. A portico in the Tuscan order with a deep entablature and ribbed frieze supports a pediment in which there is a large lunette window. Similar fanlights appear over the doors. Lacking side doorways, the south facade of the church features a fully developed pediment supported by a wide entablature and engaged Tuscan columns. The spire, intended by an early minister of the church to be a "finger pointing upward" was never completed. Its rusticated base, decorated with bull's eye windows, supports a single octagonal cupola supported by Corinthian pilasters. The first minister of the church, the Reverend Andrew Flynn, was replaced after about twenty years by the Reverend Dr. Thomas Smyth, an Irish Presbyterian minister who kept close ties with Calvinists in the British Isles. Severe acoustical problems inspired church leaders to alter the interior in 1833 by raising the floor 3 feet and lowering the ceiling by 16 feet. After severe damage by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the original ceiling height was restored and remnants of a plaster decoration incorporating the seal of South Carolina and other devices were restored to the area above the Venetian stained-glass window on the east wall. (Poston, Buildings of Charleston.)
File contains building history from Architectural Guide to Charleston (by Simons & Thomas); photocopy of a "tour" of the sanctuary; newspaper articles, including early (historical) items and DYKYC (incomplete, no date); portion of a technical report on post-Hugo repairs ("Technical Evaluation Factors").
Image #2 from Guide to Charleston Illustrated, 1875.Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation Property RecordsAcquisition
Accession
MEETING.342.Source or Donor
342 Meeting Street (Second Presbyterian Church)Acquisition Method
Collected by StaffLexicon
Search Terms
Meeting Street, Churches/Synagogues/Houses of Worship, Mazyckborough and Wraggborough, Wragg Square/Wragg Street/Aiken's Row, Ashmead Place, Second Presbyterian Church (Charleston, S.C.), Church buildings--South Carolina--CharlestonArchive Details
Archive Size/Extent
1 File FolderArchive Notes
Associated Material: See graduate student thesis "A conditions assessment and preservation guidelines for Second Presbyterian Church's graveyard, Charleston, South Carolina" by William Preston Hamilton (2008), available via pdf via Clemson University Library Catalog.
Finding Aids: Index to Property Files
Level of Description: FolderLocation
Location
Shelf
Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentDate
February 7, 2023Location
Container
PF Box 74Shelf
Prop File Shelves, Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Gordon, JamesPerson or Organization
Gordon, JohnRelated Entries
Notes
2004.020.102, 2006.010.375-376, 2009.029.1, 2017.024.29, HUGO.002.032Related Publications
Notes
Buildings of Charleston (see Abstract), pg. 611General Notes
Note
Notes: Image from this record from postcard collection, 2004.020.102.Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
August 30, 2010Updated By
admin@catalogit.appUpdate Date
February 16, 2023