For almost 300 years Christ Church, Mt. Pleasant, has served as a gathering place to worship the living Lord. Christ Church Parish was one of 10 parishes created by the Church Act of 1706. A small wooden building was built on this site in 1708, but was accidentally destroyed by a fire in 1725. Our Historic Church along Hwy. 17 was finished in 1727. 

The Church building was then burned by retreating British troops in 1782, and rebuilt six years later. Near the end of the Civil War, it was again reduced to four blackened walls. A company of Union cavalry, from the 21st Massachusetts Colored Regiment bivouacked in our churchyard. They used the building as a stable and burned the pews for firewood in the bitter winter of 1865. 

The brick Vestry House, built in 1751 and also burned, was restored by men of the Parish in 1939 and refurbished after Hurricane Hugo in 1989. It has served variously as an office, guardhouse, classroom and meeting place for committees and our teenagers.

Our handsome silver chalice (1680), paten (1763), flagon, and other communion vessels were hidden and preserved during the years of war and occupation. Currently on display at the Charleston Museum, they are used at Christ Church on special occasions. 

Another interesting feature of this 26-acre property is the Cemetery, which contains graves dating back to the mid-1700s. A Confederate earthwork zigzags across the site southeast of Highway 17. Built in 1862 by field hands from neighboring plantations, it was part of the Palmetto Fort, the picket line guarding the approach to Charleston from the northeast, which originally ran from Boone Hall to the coastal marshes. 

Our historic past has set a wonderful foundation on which to build for the future. The new nave and sanctuary, toward the rear of the church property, was dedicated in early 1996 as the first of several new buildings designed to accommodate our growing congregation. A new Parish Hall and Children’s Ministries building were added to our campus in 2003.