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The First Baptist
Church
COLUMBIA
The First Baptist Church, on Hampton Street, in
Columbia, is a solidly built, large structure of brown brick,
resembling somewhat the early New England
churches.
This church was organized in 1809 and the
first building erected in 1811 on the southeast corner of
Hampton (then Plain) and Sumter Streets. Its Sunday School
building, built in 1930, now stands on this site.
The
first pastor was the Reverend Jonathan Maxcy, first president
of South Carolina College, whose handsome monument stands near
the entrance to the driveway in the First Presbyterian
churchyard.
Dr. James Pettigrew Boyce, the pastor in
1856, subscribed $10,000.00 to build a new church, the present
one, which was erected in 1859.
On December 20, 1860,
the South Carolina Secession Convention met in this building
before it adjourned to Charleston because of a rumor of
smallpox in Columbia. Sherman's soldiers were determined to
destroy the building where the "Rebel Convention" was held.
However, through mistake, they burned the frame
structure erected in 1811. After the war, the
congregation sponsored the establishment of three other
churches.
BY
HAZEL CROWSON SELLERS
South Carolina Churches
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