Charleston Protestant Episcopal Female Domestic Missionary Society (S.C.)

Organized in 1821 to supply the poor (predominantly white worshippers) of Charleston, South Carolina with a place of worship for those who could not afford to rent seats in the existing churches. Rev. Edward Phillips began work as a city missionary for the Society in 1822. With the assistance of the Society's leading benefactress, Mrs. Sarah Russell, St. Stephen's (a "free church") was built on a lot in Guignard Street in 1824. A burial ground for the church was secured in 1831. In 1835 the church was destroyed by a fire that consumed many structures in that part of Charleston; however, with the Society's assistance construction of a new church on Anson Street was begun the same year. St. Stephen's operated a parochial school from 1845 until 1856.