Pompion Hill Chapel

National Register Listing

Street Address:

0.5 mi. SW of jct. of SC 41 and 402 (Berkeley County)

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NRHP Nomination

Record Number:

S10817708017

Description and Narrative:

Pompion Hill Chapel, erected in 1763-1765, is a miniature Georgian masterpiece, original and unaltered. The chapel, built on a typical rectangular plan, is probably the finest and best preserved of South Carolina’s numerous small, eighteenth century country parish, brick churches. The first Anglican church outside Charleston was built in 1703 on Pompion Hill. In 1706 the Church of England became the established church in South Carolina and nine parishes were laid off, of which St. Thomas’s Parish containing the 1703 wooden church, was one. Construction on the existing church began in 1763 and was completed in 1765. The Chapel is a one-story Georgian brick structure with a jerkinhead roof and a rectangular plan. The brick walls are laid in Flemish bond and the roof is still covered with slate. The brick was provided by Zachariah Villepontoux, a noted brick maker with kilns at his Paranassus Plantation on the Black River. The master mason was William Axson. Constructed of red cedar, the pulpit is modeled after that of St. Michael’s Church in Charleston. All interior woodwork and nearly all of the furnishings are original. The exterior of the chapel is also largely original and unaltered. Listed in the National Register April 15, 1970; Designated a National Historic Landmark April 15, 1970.

Period of Significance:

1765;1763 – 1765

Level of Significance:

National

Area of Significance:

Architecture;Landscape Architecture

National Register Determination:

National Historic Landmark

Date of Certification:

April 15 1970

Date of Certification as a National Historic Landmark:

April 15 1970

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