Kingston Presbyterian Church Cemetery
National Register Listing
Street Address:
800 Third Ave., Conway, SC (Horry County)
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817726014
Description and Narrative:
The Kingston Presbyterian Church Cemetery contains fine examples of Victorian gravestone art of a quality not generally found in South Carolina. Portions of the cemetery site were first the old Kingston “burying ground” and the Beaty family cemetery; few gravestones from the town graveyard survive but the Beaty family plot, which contains the artistically significant stones, is intact. The most outstanding examples of mid-nineteenth century gravestone art in the cemetery are the tombstones of the Beaty, Buck, and Graham children. The stones seem to have been sculpted by one artist, and those of Clara and Mary Beaty, Frederick Buck, and Florence Graham are particularly significant. These three tombs are marble table-type tombs, so called for the low flat slab on top that often served as a table for vases. These children’s stones have top slabs with an inscription, supporting end slabs, and open sides. The most remarkable features of these stones, rare in table tombs, are the delicately sculpted figures that lie in the space under the top slab and between the end slabs. These figures represent children either sleeping or in death. Listed in the National Register August 5, 1986.
Period of Significance:
circa 1737
Level of Significance:
Local
Area of Significance:
Art
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
August 5 1986
