Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church

Front: This African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) congregation organized in 1879. In that year, founding trustees Carter Murray and Peter Kelty, said to have been Bethel’s first two pastors, acquired a 1-acre parcel at this site. Tradition holds that members met under a tent before building a wood frame church. Reverse: Bethel was originally part of the A.M.E. church’s Gourdine Circuit. The first wood church was eventually replaced by the current building, which was later expanded and brick-veneered. For many years, Bethel housed a Black public school on-site until Williamsburg Co. consolidated its country schools in the 1950s.