Old Sheldon Church ruins seek return to hallowed ground

In a partially shaded lot near Gardens Corner, the remnants of one the nation’s oldest Greek temple-form churches is threatened every day.

Old Sheldon Church’s remote location outside of Yemassee — and the ease of access to its grounds — have welcomed vandalism throughout the years. People like to etch their names into the soft, centuries-old bricks made by hand. Families stop at the site, and children bound through the open windows and on gravestones.

The church’s caretakers and a concerned group of area residents are working to re-establish the church as hallowed ground. That could mean better controlling access to the private property that many now treat as a public park.

“The more people that come through here, the more fragile the church becomes,” said Bill Sammons, a parish member who, along with his wife, has served as the site’s caretaker for 15 years.

With a little imagination, it is not hard to picture 50 horse-drawn buggies parked for worship at Old Sheldon Church.

After services, the congregation would move across the road for lunch at the home of William Bull while slaves ate barbecue outside. The son of wealthy plantation owner John Bull, William built the church in the mid-18th century from plans he brought from London.

The structure was burned down during the Revolutionary War and rebuilt after half a century. It’s now under the care of Beaufort’s Parish Church of St. Helena, which also owns the ruins.

Asssessing the damage

Clemson researchers working with the Preservation Society of Charleston recently assessed the site using three-dimensional scanning technology to map the ruins, accurate to 2 millimeters. High-resolution images identified all of the cracks and various types of mortar used to build the church.

The scans, produced by Clemson scientist Brent Fortenberry, were overlaid with a condition assessment from Ford and included with the final report provided to the church. If a hurricane or other disaster were to demolish the structure, the model would allow the church to be rebuilt it, brick by brick.

The ruins are stable for now, but the report offers a baseline for continued monitoring.

“This is absolutely the most advanced way to document a structure,” said Frances Ford, a preservationist and lecturer at Clemson University and The College of Charleston who worked on the project.

Cleaning agents were tested and cracks measured for any movement in the ruins. Ford and a team of graduate students assessed the condition and different mortars on the site, using a drove to inspect the top of the structure.

She provided a recipe for a historically appropriate mortar to use in the future. In the past, damaging concrete material has been used on parts of the ruins, probably by well-meaning church members patching an empty joint without guidance, Ford said.

Among the steps planned for maintaining the structure are to remove vandalized bricks, flip them around and replace them. A parking lot across the road owned by the Beaufort County Open Land Trust will be limited to certain hours using a gate.

Slowing down drivers

Vehicles speeding down Old Sheldon Church Road are also an issue, Sammons said. The dangerous crossing could be improved with lighting in the future, Ford said.

Sammons and others have asked the state about lowering the speed limit on the road and for speeding to be better enforced. Fencing fronting the site could be improved, and the public needs to be reminded not to climb on the ruins, Sammons said.

The work is part of a larger plan by a committee to connect the Old Sheldon Road thoroughfare into the ACE Basin. Part of that plan is an agreement from property owners, Beaufort County Land Trust and SCE&G to move utility poles along the road out of sight.

A group is meeting again next week to talk about longterm plans. The church will look to raise money to institute some of the preservationists’ recommendations.

During their work on the ruins, researchers witnessed some of the ongoing problems.

One day a small child visiting the site with family kicked some of the equipment from Clemson’s Warren Lasch Conservation Center and smacked the legs of the scanner with a stick, Fortenberry wrote in an email to Sammons and other members of the project. Worked stopped for an hour and a half to allow visitors to clear out.

Later the same day, a bride-to-be forced researchers from the site during an engagement photo session, crying and saying the ruins were public property. She had not checked with the parish beforehand.

Ford watched a toddler climb on 18th-century graves — members of the Bull family are buried at the ruins, among others. She also found a wad of red chewing gum stuck on one of the walls.

Fortenberry resorted to showing up at dawn to avoid visitors, and the graduate students stood guard after the church agreed to close the site during some of the work.

Despite that, a photographer from a major magazine showed up and demanded access, insisting the site was public property.

“The whole perception of what that site is is so skewed by the public,” Ford said. “(They should) better let the public know what the site really is, that ‘No, it’s not public. It’s private. And we’re letting you come here to see this church ruin if you know how to behave.’

And unfortunately people don’t know how to behave.”

This story was originally published July 30, 2016 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Old Sheldon Church ruins seek return to hallowed ground."