Penning Photography Daily

Does it look like this church is nearly 300 years old?

It is.

Saint Helena Episcopal Church in Beaufort, South Carolina was established in 1712. The church building was put up in 1724, and parts of the current building remain intact from that original structure.

Like many of the churches of the era, the outside of the structure is a graveyard, full to the brim with headstones and monuments for church members that go back to the original founding families. I spent a delightful afternoon going through the pathway that meanders among the graves, remarking at the variety and size of the stones. The yard is blissfully shaded by centuries old trees, their long and graceful limbs full of hanging Spanish moss.

Inside, the white walls and walls of windows made for a bright interior that hardly needed the lights that adorn the walls and the central chandelier. The pews and carpet made a rich red and orange contrast, and were each numbered, likely at one time to be assigned to a family in some sort of ranking order.

My good timing had me there as a guest organist from San Francisco, California was practicing for a concert that would be occurring the next night. I lingered and soaked up the fullness of the music that the large and many ranked pipe organ as it washed over and through me. I so love the feeling in my chest of the 16 and 32 foot pipes as their bass notes pulse out the counter-point to the tiny high-octave pipes. Hearing a great organ, played by a masterful musician is quite the experience in-person. There’s nothing like it that comes through in a recording.

A wonderful afternoon delight, brought about by my ever curious nature.