Flannagan on Church History

Join us this Saturday, Jan. 26th, for our first BDC@ The BDC program of 2013.  

Beloved former USC-B professor Roy Flannagan will share his experiences as part of the research and writing team preparing the tricentennial history of the Parish Church of St. Helena.  Learn why the team really needed some divine intervention and amazing grace.  Program starts at 2:00pm. 

We hope to see you there!

BDC Program This Saturday

2nd Annual Tour of Historic Churches -- Dec. 4th

The Beaufort County Historical Society is pleased to announce the participation list for their 2nd Annual Tour of Historic Churches. This year there are 6 churches on the tour plus an additional feature of choirs, Church yard tours, and Bell Ringer’s to bring in your holiday spirit. The Churches on tour will be open from 10 am til 4 pm. Fee.

The special events are:

10:00 am- First Presbyterian Church of Beaufort -1201 North St.-Choir Performance

11:00 am- Wesley United Methodist Church -701 West St.-Choir Performance

11:30 am-Optional lunch at Wesley United Methodist Church -- $10.00 RSVP Louise Williams 525-6799 or 986-8759

12:15 pm- First African Baptist Church -601 New St.-Spirituals

l:00 pm -St Peter’s Catholic Churchyard- Carteret & Duke Streets-Cider and Spanish Choir

2:00 pm -The Parish Church of St. Helena- 505 Church St.-Churchyard Tour

3:00 pm -The Baptist Church of Beaufort –601 Charles St- Bell Ringers

Tickets are available at participating Churches, LuLu Burgess on Bay St, or by contacting: Pamela Ovens-President - sail@singlestar.us or call 843-785-2767 .

Tour of City Churches - December 5th

For all you heritage tourists:
The Beaufort County Historical Society is celebrating their 70th Anniversary with a Tour of Churches on Saturday, December 5 from 10:00 am - 3:00 pm. The tour will include volunteer docents at each of 8 historic churches and churchyards that are over 70 years old.

The ticket will serve as the map of this casual walking tour of the following churches: First African Baptist Church, Carteret Street United Methodist Church, The Parish Church of St. Helena, The Baptist Church of Beaufort, St. Peter's Catholic Churchyard, First Presbyterian Church of Beaufort, Tabernacle Baptist Church and Wesley United Methodist Church.

Buy tickets at the Butterfly Shop on Bay Street in Downtown Beaufort or by calling call 843-785-2767. Adults are $20.00, Seniors and Students $15.00.

To learn more about the history of these churches and cemeteries, visit the Library. The Beaufort District Collection maintains vertical files about each of these faith communities. A few of the churches have full length books written about them -- some of which are available for you to check out through the local history sections at our branch libraries so you don't necessarily have to sit in the cold BDC Research Room to learn more. When SCLENDS is up and working, you can search the catalog on keywords and see what we have to let you explore these topics in more depth. Or, just give us a call at 470-6525 or e-mail us at gracec@bcgov.net and we'll tell you what we have in our holdings about these churches and cemeteries.

Help us document the religious history of Beaufort County

Some area churches, including the Roman Catholic churches, hold services to remember the dead during the Hallowtide season.

You can read about our many of our area churches in the BDC vertical files.

We gather the information from individual churches and synagogues as we can. BDC staff and docents often donate their Sunday bulletins to the vertical files. Because the Baptist Church of Beaufort and the Beth Israel Synagogue have been particularly interested in documenting their respective cemeteries and have used our BDC to help them in their quest to learn more, these congregations have been very generous by donating copies of their compiled research and publications to the BDC. But there are more, many more, religious organizations that could -- and should -- be represented in our files and holdings.

To do a better job at collecting the history of the large variety of religious organizations in our county, we surely could use a little help.

Here's how you can help us preserve materials for the future:

If your congregation publishes an e-newsletter, a newsletter, or has compiled a history of itself, we would appreciate a copy to put into our vertical files or on the book shelf so that future Beaufortonians and researchers will have access to vital information about the social life and customs of our area in the early part of the 21st century. If you would like to donate bulletins or records from your church or religious organization, please call us at 470-6525 or e-mail gracec@bcgov.net.

Please note: The Beaufort County Library does not accept religious tracts that aim to convert the reader to any particular denomination or system of belief.