Jerusalem Baptist Church

Marker #:

16-74

Title:

Jerusalem Baptist Church

GPS:

N 34°22’15.48″  W 80°04’26.90″

Address:

301 S 6th St. (DT)

Hartsville

Erected:

2014

 

Inscription

Front:

This church, organized soon after the Civil War, is one of the oldest African American churches in Darlington County. It held its first services a few miles E under a brush arbor on Snake Branch, a creek near E Carolina Ave. The first permanent church, a log building, was built there. Trustees acquired this site in 1898, built the present church in 1907, and chartered the congregation in 1908.

Reverse:

This church, built in 1907 as a frame building, was described as a “splendid achievement” when it was covered in brick veneer and rededicated in 1939. It had a congregation of more than 350 during the Depression. Rev. Henry H. Butler (1887-1948), pastor from 1932 until his death, was also for many years the principal of the Darlington Co. Training School/Butler School and later president of Morris College.