MYSTERY PHOTO: This could be the beginning of something good

This one could be another tough one.  Hint: It’s in Charleston. Where? Send your guess to editor@charlestoncurrents.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.

Our previous Mystery Photo

Our Aug. 19 mystery, “Peeking into where?” was particularly vexing for many.  “Hat Lady” Archie Burkel of James Island explains the photo she submitted: “It was taken looking through the keyhole of Old St. Andrews Parish Church, Ashley River Road.  What should make it even harder to identify is the fact that the antique (most likely original) keyhole was replaced with something more modern a few years ago.” 

Thanks for the great photo — and congratulations to the photo detectives who correctly guessed the church:  George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Marnie Huger of Richmond, Va.; and Kristina Wheeler of West Ashley. 

Graf provided some context taken from a book about the church’s history:

“The tranquility of the magnificently restored Saint Andrew’s Parish Church, surrounded by stately oaks and ancient gravestones, belies a tumultuous past. If its walls could talk, they would tell a story as old as the human condition. Founded in the forest of a new colony, this simple Anglican church served planters and their slaves during the heyday of rice and indigo. 

“Before the Civil War, ministry shifted to the slaves, and afterward to freed men and women. Following years of decline and neglect, Saint Andrew’s rose like the phoenix. The history of the oldest surviving church south of Virginia and the only remaining colonial cruciform church in South Carolina is one of wealth and poverty, acclaim and anonymity, slavery and freedom, war and peace, quarrelling and cooperation, failure and achievement. It is the story of a church that has refused to die, against all odds.”

Peel provided more information: “The mystery photo is of the interior of the Old St. Andrew’s Parish Church in Charleston, SC. Also known as St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, it is the oldest surviving church building as well as the last remaining colonial cruciform style church in South Carolina. The original building was built in 1706 and was expanded to its current cruciform plan in 1723. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The photo was shot through the old-style skeleton keyhole in the front door. To be more precise, the keyhole on the front door on the right.”

Send us a mystery:  If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!)   Send it along to editor@charlestoncurrents.com.