About Us

Name and History

The name – New Wappetaw – has a pleasant meaning and tells an
interesting history.

The Seewee Indians gave the name Wappetaw, meaning “Sweet Water,” to
a thin strip of high land between the salt marshes of the Wando River and
Seewee Bay in northern Charleston County. The site is about 15 miles north
of Mt. Pleasant and about twenty miles south of McClellanville. Travelers
along Highway 17 will indentify Wappetaw as the locale of the modern
Seewee Restaurant and Seewee Outpost.

In 1696, a valiant band of 51 New England Congregationalists settled in the
area after fleeing Indian wars and the Salem witch trials. Governor Archdale
of Carolina invited the settlers to come after learning that they had
shipwrecked and spent a winter on Cape Hatteras. By 1699 the
Congregationalists established churches at Wappetaw and at nearby
Cainhoy.   The church at Wappetaw became The Wappetaw Independent
Congregational Church, distinguishing itself from the Anglican Church of
Christ Church Parish, founded in 1707.

As fellow Calvinists and Dissenters to the Anglican Church,
Congregationalists were allied to Presbyterians, Quakers, and other non-
Anglicans. It came to pass that the church at Wappetaw was mostly served
by Presbyterian ministers. In 1786, after independence, the church was
incorporated as Wappetaw Independent Church in Christ Church Parish.

Residents of Wappetaw began creating second homes on the waterfronts of
Mt. Pleasant and of the community which would become McClellanville. The
Wappetaw church then lost many members in the Civil War, and further
movement of families to Mt. Pleasant and the newly forming village of
McClellanville led to cessation of worship at Wappetaw. The small building,
described by the historian Petrona Royall as of “plain design” and therefore
of classic meeting house style, deteriorated. Mrs. Royall said of its demise,
“It never fell, but just seemed to settle lower and lower until it just
disappeared.“ It was gone by 1898.

Presbyterians in McClellanville founded New Wappetaw Presbyterian Church
on August 23, 1872. Construction on the sanctuary began in 1874 on land
donated by Robert Venning Morrison.   The first worship service in the
building was held on June 20, 1875, and the church as dedicated by the
famous preacher, John Gerardeau, in August 1875. Presbyterian
worshippers at Mt. Pleasant, where there had been a chapel prior to the war,
established the Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church.

The original church site at Wappetaw became “Old Wappetaw.” It is an
attractive place, located on Fifteen Mile Landing Road, just a few hundred
yards behind the Seewee restaurant. Gravestones of a number of early
residents of Wappetaw may be seen.

On August 1, 1877, a final gathering of four surviving members of “Old
Wappetaw” transferred all property of the corporation to New Wappetaw
Church. Properties transferred included all monies, bank stock, communion
table linen, the silver communion service, 115 acres of pineland, and the
church lot and burial ground. The pineland was sold in 1911 and used for
renovation of New Wappetaw ‘s sanctuary. The monies must have been
scanty and the stock of little value.

New Wappetaw’s original church steeple was located on the left side of the
building’s front. In 1951, the front was remodeled, with a larger portico
added and the steeple moved to the center. A separate Sunday School
building was constructed in 1923, and was replaced by the present attached
structure in 1938.

Visitors notice a metal rod spanning the interior of the sanctuary. It is said
that the building leaned to one side after a hurricane in 1916. Men of the
church united to push it back into shape. The occasion brought arguing
factions together, allowing someone to say, ”Look, the lion and the lamb are
lying down together.”

Stained glass windows were added in the early 1950s. Many members
disapproved, believing the change to be a departure from the Presbyterian
tradition of creating plain buildings to not distract people from the worship of
God. Again, after considerable controversy, the lion and the lamb settled
down.

New Wappetaw Church was greatly damaged by Hurricane Hugo of
September 29, 1989. The congregation gathered on the front steps two
days later and met regularly in the fellowship hall over the next two months.
Worship in the sanctuary resumed in December 1989, and a communion
service was held on Christmas Eve. The pews were taken from the
sanctuary to the Presbyterian Church in Beaufort to be restored. In working
on the floors it was realized that two layers of flooring had been added over
the original floor. The original boards wee taken up, refinished, and
replaced.   With hard work by members, help of many volunteers, and
financial support and hard work from outside individuals and institutions, the
church was completely rehabilitated by the spring of 1990.

New Wappetaw Presbyterian Church, beautiful in its simplicity, is a fitting
tribute to the glory of God.