Prince George Winyah Parish Church, circa 1747, Georgetown, South Carolina
Traveling the South, one cannot help but notice the churches. In the small towns and crossroads communities, even sometimes just around a bend in a road, there will generally be a fine little church or two, built with extra attention to detail using the best resources of time, talent and money the congregations had to offer.
Their visual story creates a timeline of architectural styles that follows the history of the South, and by extension, our nation itself. While churches in the more affluent communities were designed and built by men of architectural skill and knowledge, producing pure architectural examples of the time, there were also hints of the same styles in the local vernacular versions which represented the best efforts of the community and the resources that were available. In fact, the entire era of Carpenter Gothic style is an example of American craftsmanship that sought to mimic the Gothic cathedrals of Europe by using readily available wood in place of stone.
Beginning in the late 1600’s and prevailing for most of the 1700’s, two main examples of Colonial style - Georgian Colonial and New England Colonial - can be found in the South.
The port city of Georgetown, South Carolina holds a great example of Georgian Colonial style in Prince George Winyah Parish Church, pictured above, whose finely detailed brickwork, symmetrical design, multi-paned windows and arched transoms are all typical indicators of the style. Close on the heels of Georgian Colonial, however, came New England Colonial, as pictured below, followed by at least six more style progressions over the next two centuries. Today’s post looks at beautiful examples of each one.