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 St. John In The Wilderness (P-31) Posted by:  DougK
N 35° 16.970 W 082° 26.570
17S E 368789 N 3905363
North Carolina highway Mark P-31 can be found north of Flat Rock on US 225, the Greenville Highway.
Waymark Code: WMKPGV
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 05/11/2014
Views: 6
This North Carolina Highway Marker has the same text on each side and reads:
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P 31
St. John In
The Wilderness
Episcopal Church, built
1833-34 as a private
chapel. Given to Diocese
of North Carolina, 1836.
Enlarged in 1852.
Archives, Conservation and Highway Departments 1981
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From the North Carolina Highway Markers website:
St. John in the Wilderness, an Episcopalian church, began as a small private chapel on the Flat Rock estate of Charles Baring in 1832. During the antebellum period, Flat Rock became known as the “Little Charleston of the Mountains,” due to the large number of Charlestonians who summered there, escaping the oppressive heat of low-country South Carolina. In 1827, the Barings, a distinguished family of Charleston bankers, purchased and developed Mountain Lodge, their Flat Rock summer home.
In 1832, Charles Baring built a small Episcopalian chapel on the grounds of Mountain Lodge for private worship. The following year fire destroyed the wooden structure. Shortly thereafter Baring began construction of a brick church. In 1836, the small community of South Carolinians formed a congregation and donated the completed church to the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina.
As the Flat Rock community continued to expand, so did the church and, in 1852, an expansion project under the supervision of Charleston architect Edward C. Jones nearly doubled the size of the brick structure. The church, positioned on a steep wooded slope, mimics a Tuscan structure, with a corner tower and round-arched windows flanked with buttresses. The interior consists of arched doorways and windows, and a round-arched, double hammer beam truss system supported by turned columns.
Many of South Carolina’s best known and most powerful families, including the Draytons, Grimkes, Pickneys and Middletons, had pews at St. John. Church vestry meetings often were held in Charleston during winter months. During the Civil War, the congregation included Confederate Treasury Secretaries C. G. Memminger and George A. Trenholm. For decades, St. John remained open only during the summer months, as the church supported no year-round congregation. However, in 1958, a full-time rector was hired, and the number of year-round communicants since has risen from 58 to nearly 400.
Marker Name: St. John In The Wilderness
Marker Type: Roadside
Related Web Link: [Web Link]
Required Waymark Photo: yes
Local North Carolina markers without State Number Designation: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:Photos of your visit to the marker are required, but PLEASE, no old vacation photos taken just because it was there!
Comments about your visit, interesting nearby areas and any significant information you may have on this waymark are encouraged.
Most of all, enjoy the History that North Carolina has to offer! From the Mountains to the Ocean .. it's all here!
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