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The First Baptist
Church
CHARLESTON
The first organization of its kind in the South
was that of this venerable Baptist church in Charleston, which
dates from about 1683.
The Reverend William Sereven was the first
leader of this congregation, which was organized when Charles
Town on Oyster Point was about three years old.
Some of
these Baptists came from New England, and others from England.
Old records show that for several years the Baptists worshiped
in the home of Mrs. William Chapman. Lady Blake, and her
mother, Lady Axtell, were both Baptists and members of this
congregation.
The first meeting house was a wooden
structure erected on the site given by William Elliott in
1699.
The present church is a stately little building
with trim Doric portico, and was on the site before 1826. Of
it Mills says that it showed "the best specimen of correct
taste in architecture of the modern buildings in the
city."
BY
HAZEL CROWSON SELLERS
South Carolina Churches
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