This photograph of the Circular Congregational Church was taken in the 1930s. The congregation was founded as the first Dissenter church in the colony of South Carolina in the 1680s or 1690s, and served all non-Anglican protestants. Sometimes known as the White Meeting House, it is the source of the name of Meeting Street. The dissenters played an important role in early demands for religious liberty in South Carolina, despite the establishment of the Anglican Church. The first circular church building on the site was designed by Robert Mills and completed in 1806, but it was destroyed by fire in 1861. This photograph shows the rear of the church and its cemetery.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
