St. Paul AME Church

This congregation was organized before the Civil War and held its services in a brush arbor until 1875 when its trustees bought land near this site from B. W. Brogdon and built a sanctuary there. First church officers were trustees Cuff Brogden, Robert Brogden, and James Witherspoon. By 1880 the church was affiliated with the South Carolina Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. St. Paul AME Church bought this property in 1886 in conjunction with Pinehill Church, and the parcel was divided between the two churches in 1913. Initially part of a three-church circuit, St. Paul received its first full-time minister in the 1950s. The present sanctuary was completed in 1975 and an education annex was added in 1990.

KEYWORDS: BRUSH ARBOR, AME, SUMTER COUNTY