Church History
Trinity's Place in Early Methodism
Methodism in America was organized officially at the “Christmas Conference” in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1784. On February 27, 1785, Francis Asbury arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, where he founded the city’s first Methodist congregation. This would become the Cumberland Street Methodist Episcopal Church with 35 white and 23 black members in 1786.
The fifth session of the South Carolina Conference began at Cumberland Street Church in February, 1791, but it was held over a day or two pending the arrival of Dr. Thomas Coke who had been shipwrecked of f Edisto Island. Coke was traveling from Jamaica in the company of Rev. William Hammet, a native of Ireland and a member of the British Conference. Hammet had been preaching in the West Indies since 1786 with some success, but he also faced some strong opposition to Methodism's antislavery principle. Since Hammet had become very ill, Coke brought him to Charleston for a change of climate and situation. At the Conference in Charleston, Hammet’s inspired preaching captivated the congregation, some of whom demanded that the eloquent Irishman be assigned as Cumberland’s pastor.
Asbury already had issued pastoral appointments, and he would not consider permitting a congregation to select it’s own minister. Hammet followed Asbury from Charleston to Philadelphia, then to New York. By May, 1791, Asbury had consented to appoint Hammet as the assistant minister for Cumberland. Hammet refused the appointment and returned to Charleston.
On November 28, 1791, Hammet disavowed “Asbury Methodism” led half of the white members out of Cumberland Street Church to form a new denomination called “Primitive Methodism." He named his new congregation Trinity. Hammet gathered his followers in Charleston’s Market for services, but on February 14, 1792, he bought a large plot of land at the corner of Hasell Street and Maiden Lane. There he built a parsonage and the first Trinity sanctuary.
The original Trinity Primitive Methodist Church, a wooden structure, burned in the Charleston fire of 1838. It was replaced immediately by a brick building which stood until 1902 after having suffered fire, federal bombardment during the Civil War, hurricanes, and an earthquake. The last Trinity sanctuary on Hasell Street was used only 24 years by the congregation.
In 1926, Trinity purchased the present church here on Meeting Street from Westminster Presbyterian Church. The cornerstone of the structure had been laid on August 10, 1848. Trinity’s inaugural service in this sanctuary was February 03, 1928. Thomas W. Carroll bequeathed the property on which the educational building was constructed in 1938; the building itself was a gift from Mrs. Carroll. In 1957, the church purchased the lots between Trinity Church and Society Street, which were then cleared and landscaped. The same year all of Trinity’s buildings were refurbished.
The Building
This building was designed by Edward C. Jones, a Charleston architect who made his local and later, national reputation with this project. It was then Third Presbyterian Church (later Central Presbyterian, and after 1882, Westminster) with an ambitious pastor named William C. Dana. While in Paris, Rev. Dana had visited the church of the Madeline (Magdalene), and he may have suggested it to Jones as a model for the new church. The architect produced a Chrsitian version of the Roman temple complete with gran portico and imposing Corithian columns. This building was not damaged in the 1861 fire that swept the city; it was beyond the range of the federal bombardment of 1863. However, the 1886 earthquake did do some damage. In the 1920’s, the Presbyterians found themselves with a large elegant sanctuary, but a small membership. So, they sold the building to Trinity. Today Westminster Presbyterian is in the suburbs west of the Ashley River. Trinity was relatively untoached by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. In 2007, major renovations began on the exterior stucco and masonry as well as the interior ceiling of the Sanctuary.
