Church HistorySt. Stephen's Episcopal Church holds a unique
place among American Episcopal church as the first place of
worship in the country where pews were not rented or sold, but
free to all comers. The congregation, organized in 1822 under
the auspices of the Charleston Female Domestic Missionary
Society, met for the first two years in a rented room. In 1824,
a small church was erected on Guignard Street. That building
burned in the great fire of 1835, and a year later, the present
structure on Anson Street was erected, being consecrated on
November 24, 1836. Sarah Hopton Russell, wife of Nathaniel
Russell, one of Charleston's richest merchants, was instrumental
in the establishment of St. Stephen's. An early advocate for the
underprivileged, she helped organize the Ladies' Benevolent
Society, which provided home health care to the poor, and led
the Charleston Female Domestic Missionary Society. It was she
who donated the church's property on Guignard Street, and she
worked tirelessly for the church. The