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Photo, Print, Drawing Biggin Church (Ruins), Cooper River, West Branch, Moncks Corner, Berkeley County, SC

[ Photos from Survey HABS SC-30  ]

More Resources

[ Drawings from Survey HABS SC-30  ]
[ Data Pages from Survey HABS SC-30  ]
[ pdf version of supplemental pages ]

About this Item

Title

  • Biggin Church (Ruins), Cooper River, West Branch, Moncks Corner, Berkeley County, SC

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • South Carolina Commons House of Assembly
  • St. John's Berkeley Parish
  • Colleton, John
  • Biggin Church Stewards
  • Arzola, Robert R., program coordinator
  • Leifeste, Amalia, faculty sponsor
  • Baehr, Jennifer, field team
  • Cantrell, Jesse, field team
  • Cline, Cassie, field team
  • Darnell, Caroline, field team
  • Franco, Alena, field team
  • Freels, Rachael, field team
  • Freeman, Kirsten, field team
  • Granger, Morgan, field team
  • Johnson, Clayton, field team
  • Leeds, Jennifer, field team
  • Mattern, Kymberly, field team
  • Olson, Meghan, field team
  • Walker, Benjamin, field team
  • Nichols, Frederick D, photographer
  • Waterman, Thomas T, photographer
  • Waterman, Thomas T, historian
  • Clemson University/College of Charleston, Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, sponsor
  • McPartland, Mary, transmitter

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  churches
  • -  ruins
  • -  quoins
  • -  voussoirs
  • -  brick
  • -  religions
  • -  South Carolina--Berkeley County--Moncks Corner

Latitude / Longitude

  • 33.212435,-79.966711

Notes

  • -  2017 Leicester B. Holland Prize, Entry
  • -  Significance: Located just outside of Moncks Corner, South Carolina, are the ruins of Biggin Church. The church stands on a site elevated fifteen to twenty feet above the neighboring land, bearing in the original title-deeds the Indian name of Tippicop Haw Hill. Established by the South Carolina Commons House of Assembly on November 30, 1706, when the colony was divided into ten parishes, Biggin Church was the parish church of St. John's Berkeley Parish. The parish was an extensive one, and had at one time two chapels of ease appendant to the parish church. The original Biggin Church was probably completed ca. 1712 when John Colleton gave three acres for the site of the parish church. As one of the churches in a parish that had been created by the Church Act of 1706, Biggin fulfilled its role not only as a place of worship, but also as an integral part of the parish, which was the basic unit of local government. Each year, on Easter Monday, voters gathered in the parish church to elect two churchwardens and seven vestrymen who had a variety of civic responsibilities. Portions of two walls are all that remain of the church today. For the two walls that are no longer standing, only the grade-level stem wall remains visible a few inches above and at the level of the ground. Despite the destruction of a large portion of the building, there is evidence that Biggin Church was originally designed with a degree of sophistication. Notable architectural details include a decorative surround at the entrance, quoins at the corners, voussoirs over the windows, and a rounded water table. All of these features were expertly crafted out of brick. On the interior walls, ghost marks in the remaining plaster and mortise pockets in the masonry are evidence of where the wooden balcony tied into the structure. Today, the Biggin Church ruins are kept and cared for by the Biggin Church Stewards. The ruins were for a time, overgrown and in a state of neglect and decay, but in recent decades have undergone stabilization and conservation.
  • -  Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N2239
  • -  Survey number: HABS SC-30
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1755 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1781 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1712 Initial Construction
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 77001215

Medium

  • Photo(s): 3
  • Measured Drawing(s): 1
  • Data Page(s): 4

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS SC,8-MONCO.V,2-

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • sc0346

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material.

Ultimately, it is the researcher's obligation to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission from third parties when necessary before publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections.

For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HABS SC,8-MONCO.V,2-
  • Access Advisory: ---

Obtaining Copies

If Digital Images Are Displaying

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    • Make note of the Survey Number (e.g., HAER NY - 143) and Sheet Number (e.g., "Sheet 1 of 4"), which appear on the edge of the drawing. (NOTE: These numbers are visible in the Tiff "Reference Image" display.)
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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, South Carolina Commons House Of Assembly, St. John'S Berkeley Parish, John Colleton, Biggin Church Stewards, Robert R Arzola, Amalia Leifeste, et al., Nichols, Frederick D, and Thomas T Waterman, photographer. Biggin Church Ruins, Cooper River, West Branch, Moncks Corner, Berkeley County, SC. Moncks Corner Berkeley County South Carolina, 1933. translateds by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sc0346/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., South Carolina Commons House Of Assembly, St. John'S Berkeley Parish, Colleton, J., Biggin Church Stewards, Arzola, R. R. [...] Clemson University/College Of Charleston, G. P. I. H. P., Nichols, F. D. & Waterman, T. T., photographer. (1933) Biggin Church Ruins, Cooper River, West Branch, Moncks Corner, Berkeley County, SC. Moncks Corner Berkeley County South Carolina, 1933. McPartland, M., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sc0346/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al., photographers by Nichols, Frederick D, and Thomas T Waterman. Biggin Church Ruins, Cooper River, West Branch, Moncks Corner, Berkeley County, SC. trans by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/sc0346/>.