St. Paul Camp Ground

Front: This Methodist camp ground, one of four in Dorchester County, was established in 1880. African-American freedmen in this area held services in a brush arbor at the “Old Prayer Ground” nearby as early as 1869. By 1873 they acquired two acres nearby and founded St. Paul A.M.E. Church, building their first permanent sanctuary just southwest. Reverse: In 1880 four community leaders purchased 113 acres here and deeded it to trustees for a new St. Paul Camp Ground. “Tents,” or rough-hewn cabins, form a circle around the “tabernacle,” the open-sided shelter where services are held. This camp ground, in session the week ending the third Sunday in October, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.