A production of South Carolina E.T.V.

Saint Philip's Parish in Charleston is one of the oldest in America.

In fact, it's been here well over 300 years.

It has been through the devastations of war, enemy occupation, hurricane, flood, and fire, but it has survived, and Saint Philip's Parish has always had a church to act as a cohesive force in Charleston in its religious, cultural, and civic life.

In fact, Saint Philip's Parish may be said to have helped Charleston grow from a small settlement on a mud peninsula to a fine English city.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [insects buzzing] [gate squeaking] It's been said that Charleston was the most English of all colonial cities in America.

Many early settlers came from England by way of Barbados and the West Indies.

Some came to escape religious antagonisms.

However, truthfully, most early settlers didn't come thinking about church.

They came for the riches and adventures in the Carolinas.

When English colonists arrived in 1670, they got more adventure than they bargained for!

When they landed on Albemarle Point, immediately they had to contend wi th the French, Spanish, and native Indians who looked upon them as invaders.

At that time, building a church was not as much a priority as self-preservation.

The primary concern was to establish security and to provide food and shelter.

So, to protect themselves from attack, the English colony was moved to a mud peninsula between the Ashley, Wando, and Cooper Rivers.

It was here that they built a walled city behind a series of creeks and water inlets to the Atlantic.

This made ideal system of defense and provided the English with one of the most secure harbors in the New World.

The colony was called Charles Town in honor of England's King Charles II.

Shortly after it was established, Charles Town experienced phenomenal growth, as it became the major transatlantic seaport in the New World.

♪ As the population grew, so did the community's social problems, chief among which was the lack of discipline.

It seems that public drunkenness and immorality had taken hold of the small community.

Finally, some sober and more responsible minds felt that what was needed was discipline, and this type of discipline could be best provided by an Anglican Christian church.

So in 1680 funds were set aside, and construction began on Saint Philip's Church.

♪ The first church was built on the site of the present Saint Michael's Church.

Very little is known about its design.

[vehicular noise] We do know that it was built of black cypress on a brick foundation, and it is thought to have been completed by 1685.

We know that it was tall and stately and was surrounded by a white wooden stockade.

Its location was very close to the entrance of the walled city of Charleston.

In 1706, the Church Act divided the colony into 10 parishes.

These were very important not only for religious but for political uses.

♪ Each parish had a given number of representatives in the General Assembly.

Representatives were elected at regular intervals.

Although churches would be built in all the new parishes, Saint Philip's would still be the mother church with the most clout, for its location in town gave it a more affluent church membership.

As the population of Charleston increased, so did the membership in the Anglican Church.

Finally, the church building could no longer accommodate the entire congregation.

So in 1710, it was decided to build a new church at a different site.

The new church was to be made of brick and was copied after a Jesuit chapel in Antwerp, Belgium.

The first services in the new church were held on Easter Sunday in 1723, but 112 years later, in 1835, that structure was destroyed by fire.

So the building which we see today is the third Saint Philip's Church, the second on this same site.

Interestingly enough, this is the original key to the doors which, when open, lead to the peace in the sanctuary which Saint Philip's has always offered.

[vehicular noise] [key clanging] [vehicular noise] [door booming shut] Here in the narthex, or vestibule, of the church is an oil painting by John Blake White, depicting the terrible devastation of the fire.

It's a very haunting representation of the framework of the church silhouetted against flames.

This disaster couldn't have occurred at a more inopportune time.

It was the beginning of one of the worst depressions ever suffered by the South.

Fortunes were lost, and families were wiped out financially.

[fire crackling] The church needed to be rebuilt, so once again the members rallied.

In spite of the hard times, within three years $42,000 was raised for the rebuilding and the construction of the third Saint Philip's.

Now, in spite of the hard times, that meant that each family's contribution in modern money would be $20,000.

The cornerstone of the third Saint Philip's was laid in 1835, and the church building was completed in 1838.

So you see, in those days, the people felt that their church was very necessary for their lives.

They couldn't do without it.

So they dug deep into their pockets and emptied the sugar bowl-- or its equivalent-- and found the funds necessary for rebuilding of their church.

♪ Looking about the narthex, you can see memorial tablets.

This one honors Ma jor General William Moultrie, who is credited with twice saving Charleston from the British.

Many others are honored here.

Here we have Rebecca Motte, who defied the British during their occupation of her home.

The central stone is a relic from her house.

Listed here are members of the congregation of Saint Philip's who fought and died for the Confederacy during the War Between the States.

Here is Captain Edward Lawrence Wells, who fought in World War I and died in France in October of 1918.

♪ The membership of Saint Philip's Pa rish wasn't restricted.

In 1712, the General Assembly authorized the baptism of Black people and Indians into the Anglican Church.

Blacks were being brought to Charles Town in great numbers to be sold as slaves.

The number of slaves began greatly to exceed the number of Whites, and many feared that the colony would have to deal with a slave insurrection.

One proposed solution was to convert the slaves to Christianity through baptism, hoping the strong Christian discipline of the times would influence them.

This was not popular with all White people because they feared what might happen with mass assemblies of the Blacks.

Now Black people formed a large proportion of the parish of Saint Philip's, and this was recognized by Dr. Alexander Garden.

Dr. Garden was the emissary of the bishop of London and the rector of Saint Philip's at that time.

On September 12, 1743, he opened the first school for Black children.

The schoolhouse was paid for by philanthropists of Charleston, and he was delighted with the results.

Black parents supported it tremendously, and at one time the school had 60 pupils.

This was the first attempt made to educate Black people.

However, without his knowing it, Dr. Garden, who was way ahead of his time, was striking the first undermining blow against slavery.

Not everyone approved of his school, and when the attention came to the legislators in the General Assembly, laws which forbade the teaching of reading and writing to Black people were invoked.

So Dr. Garden's school was closed in 1764.

♪ ♪ This is a beautiful church!

Truly magnificent.

One has to have time to enjoy every bit of it.

I notice I'm walking by the typical pews of the colonial churches.

These enclosed pews served a very practical reason, because central heating being a modern affair found the people in church subject to drafts and a great deal of cold.

So they would enclose the pew to keep in whatever warmth was possible.

I've read that sometimes they would bring blankets, hot bricks, or little charcoal stoves to keep them warm.

To raise money, churches would frequently sell the pews, which means literally to give legal possession to a family to sit every Sunday in that particular spot.

There's one exception, however, in Saint Philip's.

Three pews down, we find against the edge a bronze plaque, which says that the first Manigault person to come to this country was granted in February of 1724 the right to use that pew to his heirs and assigns forever.

I'd like to sit down and really enjoy this beautiful church for a little while.

♪ The extreme length of the interior of the nave is about 114 feet.

It's 56 feet wide, and the tallest point of the ceiling reaches 42 feet.

The galleries above are anchored at their ends to massive masonry pilasters, between which are four pairs of fluted shafts of masonry.

You can see the Roman-type arches which support the roof.

The head of the columns are Corinthian capitals.

Presumably they are made of carved mahogany.

The cores of these columns are said to have been made of rounded bricks overcoated with stucco.

But as we approach the beautiful chancel, we notice that there are memorial plaques at the front of the nave, under which people have been buried.

There are many of these.

This is in the English fashion, and we find it usually in our early colonial churches.

There's an interesting story about the nave of Saint Philip's number three.

In 1920, a fire was caused by lightning, and the chancel area of Saint Philip's burned.

The board of commissioners and the vestry planned with an architect to remodel as they replaced.

The chancel was extended almost 16 feet.

At that time a beautiful dome was placed over the chancel area.

And later, in 1928, a lovely window, the All Saints window, was given to the parish by friends within the membership.

As we look at the beautiful window, we notice beneath it the altar of marble and, on each side of the altar against the wall, the reredos which we find in Anglican and contemporary Episcopal churches, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments.

There are many beautiful pieces of furniture in the chancel area.

Many have been replaced following the 1920 fire, such as the raised pulpit and its steps.

There is a beautiful mahogany reading desk, and the lectern is supported by a bronze eagle.

It's a very beautiful church, and as we look at the chancel, we see Saint Philip's flag to one side.

It reminds us of the belief of the parishioners of this church, "Let your light shine before men."

The Communion silver is one of the finest collections in this country.

♪ One set was given by England's King George II.

This gift was to encourage the town to be named Georgetown in his honor.

Another collection is called Pirate Silver, although it has nothing to do with pirates.

It was given to the church by Colonel and Mrs. William Rhett, who ordered it made by a silversmith in London in 1710 to be designated as a gift to Saint Philip's.

This heart-shaped plate is believed to be made from Spanish silver.

It's either late 15th- or early 16th-century.

It has a shallow depression in the center and an ornate gadroon rim of hollow flutings surrounding a vine.

This piece was discovered in the Caribbean, is a gift from either Jacob Fidling, a church member during the early 1700s, or John Flavel.

Both gentlemen were captains of privateers.

This chalice with paten was made from a large silver plate, or salver.

These two pieces were used for the convenience of administering the sacrament privately.

One of the most important things about Saint Philip's is its church records, which date to the early 1700s and give detailed information on the early years of Charleston.

♪ The vestry of Saint Philip's maintained vital statistics when the British made the area a crown province in 1720.

These handwritten entries reflect what life was like in those difficult times.

Every White birth, baptism, marriage, and death in the colony was recorded here.

The records reveal that from 1720 until 1770, about 6,000 burials took place at Saint Philip's Church alone.

During that time, Charles Town wasn't a very healthy place to live.

Until the early 1900s, half of all deaths were from food poisoning or illnesses caused by drinking polluted water.

Garbage wasn't properly disposed of, pigs roamed the streets, and vultures were a protected species.

Because Charles Town was a major port city, ships would dock here, and sailors who were infected with disease would mingle among the townspeople, spreading whatever illness they had.

Epidemics were common.

Whole families would be wiped out.

Smallpox, yellow fever, diphtheria, and malaria broke out frequently during that colonial period.

At times there would be 12 to 14 burials a day, which created a tremendous shortage of cemetery space.

Many of the deceased were buried in unmarked graves to remain forever lost.

♪ The graveyard surrounding Saint Philip's marked the final resting place of many Americans whose names fill our history books.

Here in the eastern part lies Edward Rutledge, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and later governor of South Carolina.

Not far from Rutledge is the grave of Charles Pinckney.

He was a signer of the United States Constitution, a governor of South Carolina, and a minister to Spain.

♪ Across Church Street is the west side of the graveyard of Saint Philip's.

♪ Here we have the sepulcher of Colonel William Rhett, who is credited with saving Charles Town from the pirates.

Colonel Rhett was an officer in His Majesty's Customs, and in the 1720s, he defeated the raiding pirates who were harassing merchant shipping to and fro from Charleston Harbor.

♪ Not far away we find the grave of John C. Calhoun, one of the foremost statesmen of the 19th century.

Calhoun served the federal government in the United States Senate, as secretary of state, and as vice president under Andrew Jackson.

He was a great exponent of unity of the South and strongly and firmly believed in nullification.

When he died in 1850, the state of South Carolina requested from his family that he be interred here in Saint Philip's churchyard because, in a sense, Saint Philip's churchyard is equivalent to the Westminster Abbey of Great Britain in London.

With a great deal of ceremony, his body was brought by train and by boat from Washington, received by the governor, and interred here in 1850.

When the War Between the States broke out, there was great concern that, due to his opinions about nullification, his grave might be vandalized by Union soldiers who were not considerate of the dead.

The body was removed from its first resting place and buried secretly until the war ended.

We don't know where the second burial took place.

Was it across the street, in Saint Michael's, under Saint Philip's Church, or did they take him to Columbia?

Be that as it may, after the tumult of war was over, his body was brought back to this section of Saint Philip's.

In 1884, the state of South Carolina erected this lovely sepulcher to the memory of one of its most distinguished sons.

♪ Nearby is a less imposing marker to DuBose Heyward.

A native Charlestonian, in his home at The Battery he wrote a story from his imagination based on conditions in Cabbage Row, but he moved it to Catfish Row.

George Gershwin met him at his summer home on Folly Beach and wrote music for what became "Porgy and Bess," our first American opera.

To me, it's pleasing that when cultural exchange began between the United States and Russia, the first offering sent by our country to Russia was an all-Black cast of "Porgy and Bess."

♪ Although Saint Philip's has always seen its share of famous people, it's important to remember that thousands of its members were men and women whose names will never be a household word or written about in a history book.

Charleston has always been an affluent city, but many members of St. Philip's Church were poor common people, whose contributions cannot be ignored.

Throughout its history, the contributions of these people have been the foundation upon which the third Saint Philip's has been rebuilt and remodeled.

Now, the original belfry of Saint Philip's was replaced by this bell tower in 1850 in order to support 11 heavy bells.

The bell tower was an obvious ta rget for Northern bombardment during the War Between the States.

Since it was such an obvious target, it was hit 16 or more times but was never completely destroyed.

Years later, the bell tower became a valuable navigational aid to pilots seeking to avoid the dangerous sandbar in Charleston Harbor.

There was a light maintained by the federal government placed in the steeple of Saint Philip's from 1885 until 1915.

All a pilot had to do was line up Saint Philip's steeple with the eastern side of Fort Sumter, and they would have a safe passage.

In 1860, the bells were given to the Confederate government, either for safekeeping or possibly to be melted down to be made into cannon.

Whatever the case, they were never returned, and for over 100 years, the church bell tower would be silent.

Chimes were installed in 1975 and can be heard today echoing throughout the streets of Charleston.

[chiming slowly] ding...dong... ding...dong... [chiming rapidly] ding, ding dong, ding dong... [chiming rapidly] [chiming slowly] dong...dong...dong... dong...dong... dong...dong... [no audio] The peace and tranquility of Saint Philip's is symbolized by an old prayer, a prayer which could have been used in the service in 1680, attributed to Elizabeth I.

"O Lord, preserve us all the day long, "until the shadows lengthen and evening comes, "the busy world is hushed, "the fever of life is over, "and our work is done.

"Then in thy great mercy, "grant us a safe lodging, a holy rest, and peace at the last."

[chiming slowly] ding...dong... ding...dong... ding...dong... [insects buzzing loudly] Program captioned by: CompuScripts Captioning, Inc. 80 3.988.8438 [slow chiming continues]