MYSTERY PHOTO: Another old building

Here’s a photo of another old building in the tri-county area.  What and where is it? 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 Oct. 4 mystery, “Old picture of an old building” showed the ruins of Biggin Church, a site about two miles from Moncks Corner that burned three times since first being built in 1711.  It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Several readers thought the photo showed some other famous South Carolina ruins, such as the St. Helena Island Chapel of Ease or old Sheldon Church, both in Berkeley County.  So hats off to those who correctly identified the Berkeley County site: Chris Brooks of Mount Pleasant; Callie Walpole and Stephen Yetman, both of Charleston; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Marnie Huger of Richmond, Va.; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; and Jay Altman of Columbia.

Huger provided some context: “It was likely named for Biggin Hill in the London Borough of Bromley.   Originally constructed in 1711, it was the church of the parish of St. John’s, Berkeley. The church has burned 3 times; the ruins are from the church built in 1761 and its reconstruction in 1781.”

Segars said that after the church burned in 1886 [although it could have been later] due to a forest fire, it was not rebuilt because of the economic hard times after the Civil War.  “The structure soon became known as ‘the brickyard’ because so many of the brick were stolen from the walls, leaving only two walls of the original 30′ x 60′ structure.”

Peel added, “The original parishioners of the Biggin Church were mostly Huguenots, who were French Calvinists / Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. They followed the teachings of theologian John Calvin but were being persecuted by the French Catholic government in the 17th century so they fled France and created Huguenot settlements all over Europe, Africa, and the USA, including modern-day Berkeley County in South Carolina.”

Altman provided the text of a historic marker outside the church:

Side one:  “These ruins are all that remains of Biggin Church, built soon after the America Revolution as the parish church of St. John’s Berkeley Parish. This large parish, created in 1706 by the Anglican Church, was long and narrow, with distinct Upper, Middle, and Lower areas. The church here was named for nearby Biggin Creek, which flows into the Cooper River.”

Side two: “The first building on this site was a log building. It was replaced ca.1710-1715 by a brick church witch burned in a forest fire in 1755.  A brick church covered in stucco built here ca.1767 was burned by the British in 1781. These ruins are of the fourth and last church here, used infrequently after the Civil War. The church burned in a forest fire in 1899.”

• 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.