St. Stephen's Episcopal Church (Charleston, S.C.)

St. Stephen's Church in Charleston, S.C., was established in 1822 under the patronage of the Charleston Female Domestic Missionary Society, and is said to have been the first free Episcopal church in the U.S. The original church on Guignard St. was consecrated in Mar. 1824, but after that building was destroyed by fire in 1835 the church moved to its present location on Anson St. Around 1854 there were 120 regular white communicants and nine colored communicants. In 1880 St. Stephen's closed and its congregation united with that of St. Luke's Episcopal Church of Charleston. St. Stephen's briefly reopened in 1892 to 1893, and in 1911 opened as a mission church with a parochial school. In 1923 St. Stephen's was again reactivated when the African American congregation of Mount Moriah Union Methodist Church transferred to this church.