St. Luke's Church on Hilton Head to begin renovations
Half a dozen bundled-up children shoved gold shovels into the dirt Sunday morning outside their Hilton Head Island preschool, breaking ground on the latest in a long history of changes at St. Luke's Church.
The students will soon have a larger school, and their parents a larger parish hall and improved parking lot thanks to a $3.3 million capital campaign launched in honor of the church's 50th anniversary last year.
On Sunday, the communicants remembered how far they had come on the south end of the island, but also what preceded their campus at Pope Avenue and Cordillo Parkway: 250 years of worship in southern Beaufort County.
"We are honoring the past, rejoicing the present and building for the future," said church member and town councilman Tom Lennox.
St. Luke's Church traces its roots to the Zion Chapel of Ease of St. Luke's Parish, a wooden church built on a brick foundation in 1786 under the direction of Revolutionary War patriots Capt. John Stoney and Isaac Fripp.
The chapel was one of several in the county that served as a place of worship for Episcopal communicants who lived too far from the parish church of St. Luke's, established in 1767 near Pritchardville. Other places of worship were a courthouse in Coosawatchie and a chapel in Grahamville.
Later, they also worshipped at the Church of the Cross in Bluffton.
The chapel on Hilton Head was abandoned when Union forces occupied the island and dismantled in the mid-1800s to provide materials for the homes of freed slaves.
All that remains today is its cemetery at the at the corner of U.S. 278 and Mathews Drive, now home to the oldest intact structure on Hilton Head, the mausoleum of cotton plantation farmer William Eddings Baynard.
While St. Luke's Church has a much shorter history at 50 Pope Ave., the legacy is no less rich for its communicants.
The land was donated by Sea Pines Plantation developer Charles Fraser, whose vision shaped Hilton Head's transformation into a resort island.
To keep up with a growing congregation, the church underwent its first renovation in 1970, just six years after worship began, and a second in 1989.
A preschool launched in 1994, was rebuilt after a fire in 1996 and now serves about 60 students.
And just this year, the church joined the Diocese of South Carolina in splitting from the reorganized Episcopal Church in South Carolina.
Members said they're overjoyed their most recent campaign is getting off the ground, but not surprised. They had faith the community would meet its daunting goal.
Preschool director Janice Ring said she thought, "If God wants this to happen, he will put it in the hearts of the people.
"And look at this," she said Sunday morning, gesturing to the few dozen people gathered outside. "He put it in the hearts of the people."
Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.
Related content:
- Local Episcopal churches react to court decision, February 15, 2015
- Video: St. Luke's Church breaks ground for new preschool, December 20, 2015
This story was originally published December 20, 2015 at 6:45 PM with the headline "St. Luke's Church on Hilton Head to begin renovations."