Haunting ruins of 1754 church to be resurrected after collapse, SC officials say
The skeletal remains of a 271-year-old church in South Carolina’s Lowcountry are set to be resurrected five years after key parts collapsed for unknown reasons, historians say.
Pon Pon Chapel of Ease – built in 1754 – is a ghost church that consists largely of a grand entrance to nothing, but that’s not stopping an ambitious $1.2 million project to resurrect the facade.
Even now, the ravaged-looking doorway attracts a steady pilgrimage of tourists, archaeologists and paranormal investigators to a remote field 35 miles west of Charleston.
“The center and top (of the entrance) will be rebuilt to the original design,” USC History Professor Sarah E. Miller of the Colleton County Historical and Preservation Society told McClatchy News in an email.
“The front façade will be supported by two towers in the corners and a support trellis across the back of the façade. This will allow most of the interior of the chapel to be open. We hope to add pews to the area for people to sit.”
That means the nave could host gatherings again for the first time since 1832, when the chapel was abandoned due to fire or “a different type of catastrophe.”
Restoration could be complete by October 2026, and will include making bricks in a style similar to that of the 18th Century.
It started in 1725
The chapel’s history dates back to 1725, when the congregation began meeting in a wooden structure that was replaced with a brick church in 1754, historians say.
It became a magnet for disasters, resulting it the site being dubbed “the Burnt Church,” historians say. Hurricane Gracie in 1959 is blamed for the building’s lack of walls, state historians say.
“Standing sentinel in the isolated woods of Colleton County, Pon Pon Chapel of Ease was once the center of a bustling thoroughfare,” SouthCarolinaLowcountry.com reports.
“Located on what was once a busy stagecoach road, the ruins of this beautiful chapel are all that remains in the area. During the early days of American history, Parker’s Ferry Road connected Charleston and Savannah. President George Washington used this road during his 1791 Spring Tour. Rumor has it he even stopped to worship at the chapel.”
The chapel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, in part because the founder of the Methodist church, Rev. John Wesley, preached there in April 1737, according to the S.C. Department of Archives.
“Chapel of Ease” was a phrase applied to sites that “served parishoners who lived a great distance from the parish church,” but Pon Pon Chapel was an exception because it was also a full Anglican parish, historians say.
A lingering mystery
Nearly three centuries of fires and storms have given Pon Pon Chapel a dramatic ravaged appearance, which is a big reason it draws gawkers.
However, there was no indication vandalism had any role in the July 2020 collapse of the facade, which had been previously stabilized in the 1970s.
“We have not determined why the top of the front crumbled, but there was a crack in the structure at that spot,” Miller said.
“However, on the day of the fall, there were no storms or winds. The façade stood through several hurricanes, tornados, and storms in the prior years, so it’s a mystery. The most likely scenario is that gravity took over. There was a lean to the wall that might just have been toppled.”
HOW TO HELP
The SC Legislature awarded the Colleton County Historical Preservation Society $1.25 million for the stabilization and preservation of the chapel, but additional money is needed. Donations can be made via the Colleton County Historical Preservation Society at www.cchaps.com/store/donation-for-pon-pon or via check to CCHAPS Pon Pon Fund, 205 Church St. Walterboro, SC 29488. For more information, email semiller@mailbox.sc.edu.
This story was originally published September 29, 2025 at 10:11 AM with the headline "Haunting ruins of 1754 church to be resurrected after collapse, SC officials say."