St. Philip's Episcopal Church

Church Street curves around it — literally. When the city proposed widening the road in the 19th century, the vestry argued that a steeple was more ornamental than a street, and won. The current building, completed in 1838 with its steeple added by 1850, is the third structure to house the oldest congregation in South Carolina, established in 1680. Its graveyard holds John C. Calhoun, Edward Rutledge, and Christopher Gadsden, among others. The earlier brick church's construction was partially funded by duties on rum and enslaved Africans — a fact the stones don't explain, but don't let you forget either.