The Beauty of Holiness: Anglicanism and Architecture in Colonial South Carolina (The Richard Hampton Jenrette Series in Architecture and the Decorative Arts)

496 Pages·2009·24.32 MB·English

by  Louis P. Nelson

The Beauty of
H
OLINESS
THE RICHARD
HAMPTON
JENRETTE
Series in Architecture
and the Decorative Arts
The Beauty of
Holiness
Anglicanism & Architecture
in Colonial South Carolina
Louis P. Nelson
THE UNIVERSITY OF
NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
Chapel Hill
Publication of this book © 2008 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
has been made possible by
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a generous grant from the Manufactured in the United States of America
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on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
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The University of North Carolina Press has been
amember of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-
PUBLICATION DATA
Nelson, Louis P.
The beauty of holiness: Anglicanism and architecture
in colonial South Carolina(cid:24)/(cid:24)Louis P. Nelson.
(cid:25)p. cm.—(The Richard Hampton Jenrette series in
architecture and the decorative arts)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8078-3233-2 (cloth: alk. paper)
1.Anglican church buildings —South Carolina—History—18th century. 
2.Architecture, Colonial—South Carolina. 
3.Anglican Communion—South Carolina—History—18th century. 
4.Material culture—South Carolina—History—18th century. 
5.South Carolina—Religious life and customs.(cid:25)
I.Title.
NA5230.S68N45(cid:25)2009
726.5(cid:118)80975709033—dc22(cid:25)2008029866
cloth(cid:25)12 11 10 09 08(cid:25)5 4 3 2 1
For Kristine
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
PART I Constructing Material Religion
1. The City Churches 13
2. The Diversity of Countries, Times, and Men’s Manners 57
3. Builders and Building Culture 113
PART II Belief and Ritual in Material Religion
4. Sensing the Sacred 141
5. The Sacramental Body 175
6. The Beauty of Holiness 217
PART III Material Religion and Social Practice
7. Carolina in Ye West Indies 253
8. Anglican Architecture and Civic Order 279
9. Pulpits, Pews, and Power 309
PART IV Revolutionary Changes to Material Religion
10. Building the “Holy City” 333
Conclusion 365
Appendixes 369
Notes 387
Bibliography 447
Index 475
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The foundations for this book were laid several years ago, during the many
excursions to and conversations about South Carolina’s rural parish churches
with my then-boss and now-colleague Jonathan Poston. I began working for
Jon in 1991, and his enthusiasm for and encyclopedic knowledge of South
Carolina’s early architecture launched the intellectual journey that has re-
sulted in this book. Jon’s commitment to the examination, preservation, and
interpretation of greater Charleston’s historic architecture ignited in me a
deep desire to explore these buildings in great detail and to ask questions
about how they worked.
After working with Jon, I went to graduate school, where this project
received the support of a University of Delaware Competitive Fellowship,
for which I am most grateful. While at the University of Delaware, I had
the pleasure of working with a host of great scholars and mentors. I owe a
great debt of thanks to my dissertation advisor, Bernie Herman. My work
has benefited from Bernie’s broad understanding of early America and his
thoughtful criticism of historical method. Because of Bernie, I am a better
writer and a more critical thinker. A number of other faculty members played
a hand in shaping the way I think about buildings and historical method,
including J. Richie Garrison, Damie Stillman, Perry Chapman, and Wayne
Craven. While at Delaware, I also benefited from innumerable conversations
with friends and colleagues, including Anna Andrzejewski, Jeroen van den
Hurk, Cindy Falk, Pat Keller, Tom Ryan, Pam Sachant, Karen Sherry, Ryan
Smith, and especially Jennifer Amundson and Jeff Klee.
There are a number of scholars and friends who have shaped my under-
standing of early American architecture. Carl Lounsbury introduced me to
the rigors of fieldwork and has been a great mentor in the study of religious
architecture. My work with Carl in the South, the Mid-Atlantic, and Eng-
land has had a profound impact on this book. I have also spent untold hours
recording buildings with Ed Chappell, Willie Graham, and Mark Wenger.
From them I learned the benefits of very careful attention to the smallest
of details. And I am honored to have had various portions of this book read
by Cary and Barbara Carson and Catherine Bishir. All three have helped
me frame and communicate my arguments. A handful of scholars also read
portions of this manuscript with an eye to material religion and American