St. Michael's Methodist Church

Front: Established in 1868, St. Michael’s was the first Methodist congregation in Bennettsville organized by African Americans. Early members met south of here at a community worship building used by local freedpeople after the Civil War. They built the first church at this site in the 1870s. St. Michael’s was one of the earliest institutions in the African American neighborhood eventually known as “The Gulf.” Reverse: In 1923, St. Michael’s replaced an older wooden building with the brick Gothic Revival church that still stands. A parsonage built adjacent to the church at that time was torn down in the 2000s. The church was designed Miller Fulton Whittaker, professor at S.C. State College and one of the first Black architects in S.C. It was built by local residents led by Lee Alonzo Blackman, a contractor and St. Michael’s member.