John Wesley Methodist Church

Front: This church, founded about 1865, is the first African-American church in Lamar and was long known as Lamar Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. It was organized by Rev. John Boston, a former slave who was its first minister, serving here 1865-67. Boston, who also represented Darlington Co. in the S.C. House 1868-70 and 1872-74, is buried in the church cemetery. The old Boston Township was named for him. Reverse: The church held its first services in a brush arbor, but completed a frame sanctuary here about 1866. That church burned in 1906 and was replaced later that year by the present frame sanctuary, a Gothic Revival building. In 1916 trustees donated a half-acree for the Lamar Colored School, later Spaulding High School. Electricity replaced gas lights in 1935 and the exterior was covered in brick veneer in the 1950s.