Coming Street Cemetery/ KKBE

On Saturday evening our class took a trip to the cemetery associated with the Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim synagogue which is located on Hassle Street. We met at the Coming Street Cemetery which was established in 1762. We met with tour guides Anita Moise Rosenberg and Randi Serrins, and were given a tour of the cemetery. 

Above are the two tour guides, Anita Moise Rosenberg and Randi Serrins.

Above are two Obelisk tombs in the cemetery.

Above are three Die-in-Socket headstones in the cemetery. 

This Coming Street Cemetery is different from most of the others we have visited like the Protestant and Catholic churches, whereas the cemetery is not located near the actual place of worship. The reasoning for this is that the members of the Jewish faith believe that life and death should not mingle. They think that death is seen as unholy in Judaism, therefore separating life and death into the synagogue and the cemetery. 

Above is a Die-in-Socket grave that is open and ready for burial.

Above is an aerial view of a Ledger headstone.

While there, we learned that the Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim synagogue is the “oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in the South.” We also learned a lot about the graves and the people buried there. Our tour guides, Anita Moise Rosenberg and Randi Serrins, informed us that every person buried there is buried 6 feet under the ground. There are around 800 people buried there including 12 Revolutionary War soldiers, 8 soldiers of the War of 1812, 2 soldiers from the Seminole Wars in Florida, 23 Civil War participants, 6 rabbis of the congregation, and 20 past presidents of the congregation.

Typically, families are buried together all in one grave, making great use of the cemeteries’ space. Often times, you will see rocks placed on top of the headstones. Anita Mouse Rosenberg informed us that “the symbolic reasoning for this is the belief that the rocks help to bury and keep the negativity and aura of death out of the world and only in the grave.”

Above is a water fountain which is located right inside the front gate entrance to the cemetery. The purpose of the water fountain is to wash your hands before and after you leave to keep everything in the cemetery in, and everything outside the cemetery out. 

Overall, it was very interesting getting to see the differences between typical graveyards and a Jewish graveyard.

Scavenger Hunt

Last class we visited the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul and St. Patrick's Catholic Church.

This is a Foot stone at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul. Lila Barks Dale Pickens who died February 7, 1942.  

This is a Die in Socket tomb at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St Luke Paul. It is unknown who was buried here based on the picture. 

This is an Elevated Box tomb at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St Luke Paul. It is unknown who was buried here based on the picture.

This is a Celtic Cross tomb at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St Luke Paul. Emerson Cobb Cook is buried here. She died in 2004. 

This is a Family tomb at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St Luke Paul. The Johnson family is buried here, but the death dates are unknown. 

This is a Pedestal tomb at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St Luke Paul. Matthew Sully Reeves is buried here. He died in 1902.

This is an Obelisk tomb at St. Patrick's Catholic Church. It is unknown who was buried here based on the picture. 

This is a Headstone tomb at St. Patrick's Catholic Church. It is unknown who was buried here based on the picture. 

This is a Ledger tomb at St. Patrick's Catholic Church. It is unknown who was buried here based on the picture.

This is a Calvary Cross tomb at St. Patrick's Catholic Church. It is unknown who was buried here based on the picture.

Ruth Miller: Graveyard Expert and Tour Guide

An inspiring and knowledgeable speaker came to our class this past week and left us wanting to know more about the graveyards around Charleston. Ruth Miller was born in 1943, and taught high school until 1979. She became a licensed city guide for Charleston, and has written multiple books, including Charleston Charlie (1989) and co-author of The Angel Oak Story: Johns Island Reminiscences (1989) and Charleston's Old Exchange Building: A Witness to American History (1986, 2005). Miller became interested in grave sites because she found it interesting learning about the history of this old town in as many ways as she possibly could. Miller informed us that "In 1776 Charleston’s population was as big as Boston, Massachusetts.” When learning about the history of Charleston, we usually don’t hear much about the wealth aspect of it because the north won the war which pretty much erased the history of Charleston. 

Above is me and classmate, Hannah Lees, posing for a picture with
Ruth Miller, graveyard expert and tour guide. 

  Although there was a large slave port in Charleston during this time, there are “no African-Americans buried in this graveyard since slaves were not seen as humans as were white people”, states Miller. In 1670, the first boats came to Charleston not directly from England, but the West Indies. The West Indies was a colony of people who grew up with slave labor, which led to Charleston becoming the only colony that had slaves on its very first boats. 

Ruth Miller also spoke about property rights within families in the 18th century. During this time, women had the bare minimum when it comes to gender roles. They could not own property, they would to get any property if their husband died, and they could not vote. They were expected to act as a servant for their husband and kids: cook for them, clean for them, etc. 

The reason Charleston is so wealthy is because it was a combination of slave ports and rice farms, hence the reason Charleston, South Carolina is known as the “rice bowl” of the world. This made it overall very wealthy. Ruth Miller states that "We also had more money than New York City, while being the richest city in Colonia America.”

Overall, it was very exciting listening to and learning about Ruth Millers experience as a graveyard tour guide, as well as her knowledge of the history of Charleston. 

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church

Above is an eye level view of St. Mary's Roman
Catholic Church, located at  95 Hasell Street

The church we chose to study is Mary's Roman Catholic Church, located at 95 Hasell St in Charleston, SC. My group and I were drawn to explore this church because we were immediately infatuated by its modern beauty it relays on the outside. Furthermore we were especially captivated by the simultaneous historic depths it entails behind in the churchyard. 

Founded in 1788, St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church was the first established Roman Catholic Church in the Carolinas and Georgia. After Reverend John Caroll sent Reverend Matthew Ryan to Charleston from Ireland to start a parish, they began to worship in a methodist meeting house in August, 1789. The congregation’s second worship center was a brick sanctuary which was unfortunately a victim of the Charleston Fire in 1838. On June 9th, 1839 the present building held its first service, being the third landmark to serve its congregation. Despite the damage from the Civil War, the earthquake of 1886, Hurricane Hugo in 1989 along with other natural disasters, St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church is still an ongoing church and you can find their hours of operation on their website. 

The picture above shows myself, Eden Kirn, posing in the
graveyard in front of headstones.

The Church has undergone a few restorations over the years due to these disasters, for example a recent project found faux charcoal marbling beneath the white finish of exterior columns and the columns were restored in a similar pattern to reflect historic detail. The Church reflects classic Roman architecture, specifically Ionic Order which was a common style of Greek temples. The interior of the church has paintings that date all the way back to 1814, one in particular was from the earlier brick church. This (painting of the Crucifixion) was able to be restored by its original Charleston artist, John, S. Cogdell after the fire in 1838. Other paintings in the church were painted in Rome before being installed in the church around 1896. Stained glass arched windows and the polished marble altar were gifts to the church and are considered masterpieces in the church. 

The above video gives the 

perspective of someone standing

on the front porch of the church.

After Reverend Matthew Ryan came to Charleston, the board of trustees and many of the congregations first members were Irish immigrants. The church has its own graveyard where many of the church's earliest members rest, including many french refugees from the West Indies escaping the slave insurrection (1793) in Santo Domingo. 

The church has a very large golden cross on the top, as well as four large columns which have a tie-dye aesthetic to them. The church also has three gates in the center of the front of the church, which they close after hours. 

Above shows the layout of the gravestones,
making good use of the space. 

The graveyard was relatively small, but has about 550 headstones, making very good use of its space. The graveyard consisted of mainly upright headstones with very few flat headstones. The night we went, the graveyard was open to the public, allowing us to walk through, observe, and take pictures. The last name “Lapenne” was a popular one that came up multiple times in the cemetery, as well as the last name “Riley”.

Hurrication Dorian: Tallahassee Style

Having grown up in Tallahassee, Florida, I have learned how to properly prepare for hurricanes. My roommate, Ella, and I are both from the same town in Florida, so she and I made the decision to pack our things and head back home. We brought our friends Jake, from New Jersey, and Taylor, from Spartanburg, South Carolina, home with us so they could experience Tallahassee. We made a long road trip out of it; we stopped at railroad tracks, abandoned parks, plow fields, every food place we could find, abandoned gas stations to play with the stray dogs, etc. Jake is a very talented videographer, so we have been making a movie/vlog the whole trip. We took them to an abandoned warehouse to go skeet shooting, Millers Landing to watch the sunset over the lake, the Downtown Getdown, and hopefully many more places. Tomorrow we are taking them on a boat on Lake Talquin, and then to a Florida State football game. We plan on driving back up to Charleston early Sunday morning so we have the day to recuperate and get settled back into our routines. While back home, I got to see my best friends and hang out with them for a while. I also visited my old high school and saw my favorite teachers. My dad and I also coach a nine year old girls travel soccer team together, so I surprised them and showed up to practice, which was probably the highlight of my trip. Even though some people called us crazy for driving directly into the storm to go home, it was worth it to see everyone I’ve been missing.