Graveyard Intro

This week in my FYE, my professor asked us to choose a church from a list he provided.  We walked around Charleston to see all of them in person, and my favorite was St. John's Lutheran Church.


St. John's is very close to campus, at 5 Clifford St, so I liked that about it as well as the architecture of the building.  It is absolutely beautiful and very old.

The church was founded in 1742 with the arrival of Dr. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, a German settler who was originally just passing through to Georgia.  He ended up coming back for three weeks and holding services for German families in the area.  

The original, wooden, building's first cornerstone was laid in 1759, but it was destroyed and the current building was built between 1814 and 1816.  The rectangular building with stucco brick was designed by a man named Frederick Wesner, and the doors were painted red due to a common Lutheran symbol for the blood of Christ.  The steeple, however, was not added until 1859 by a man named David Lopez.


Unfortunately, the gates were locked when I went to visit, but I could still see a good amount of the graveyard.  I would say it's pretty decently sized- not large, but also not very small.  Many of the markers were decorated; however I couldn't make out what the words said due to how faded they were.  







Overall the church is beautiful, and I'm excited to go inside sometime when it's open.