Pompion Hill Chapel
A fine example of colonial American architecture, Pompion Hill Chapel is one of only a handful of surviving eighteenth-century ecclesiastical buildings in the lowcountry.
(Berkeley County). Built in 1763, Pompion Hill Chapel is among the finest remaining examples of the Anglican parish churches of the lowcountry. Situated near Huger, the chapel stands on a bluff along the eastern branch of the Cooper River. It was built to replace a decaying wooden building erected sixty years earlier as a place of worship for plantations in the surrounding area. The cost of the new chapel was estimated at £570 sterling. The colonial government provided £200; the remaining funds came from private contributions. The chapel may have been designed by Zachariah Villepontoux, who supplied the bricks for its construction and marked his handiwork by carving his initials on the north and south doors.
The chapel is built on a rectangular plan and features Georgian styling. Its exterior features include a steeply pitched, slate-covered jerkinhead (clipped gable) roof; arched windows; and a projecting chancel with a Palladian window. The interior is finished with white plaster walls, a cove ceiling, and a floor of red brick laid in a herringbone pattern. The dais-style pulpit, carved from native red cedar by the Charleston cabinetmaker William Axson, Jr., was modeled on the one at St. Michael’s. The chancel is trimmed with Doric pilasters supporting a full entablature and is enclosed by a balustrade. The Palladian window is set in a recessed arch and trimmed with Doric colonettes with a full entablature above.
A fine example of colonial American architecture, Pompion Hill Chapel is one of only a handful of surviving eighteenth-century ecclesiastical buildings in the lowcountry. It was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1970.
Lane, Mills. Architecture of the Old South: South Carolina. Savannah, Ga.: Beehive, 1984.
