Circular Congregational Church

Circular Congregational Church tickets: which one to buy

The Circular Church stands on Meeting Street in the middle of Charleston, in the stretch that gave the street its name, and it is free to enter when the doors are open, which is usually on weekday mornings and around Sunday services. The burial ground beside it is open daily and is the real draw: it is the oldest in the city, with stones going back to the 1690s, and the congregation allows visitors to walk it.

Historic walking tours of the peninsula include the church with the older Anglican churches nearby and explain why so many denominations settled within a few blocks. Graveyard and ghost tours use it in the evening, which is entertainment rather than history. Nothing needs booking, and there is no charge, though a donation box stands inside. Allow half an hour with the graveyard. The churchyard gate on Meeting Street is open even when the building itself is locked.

Visiting Circular Congregational Church: what to see

The congregation was gathered in the 1680s by English, Scottish, Irish and French dissenters who had come to the new colony, and it is one of the oldest continuously active in the southern states. Its first circular meeting house, designed by Robert Mills, who later designed the Washington Monument, gave the church its name and stood until the fire of 1861, which swept through the centre of Charleston during the war.

The present building, finished in 1892, reuses the brick from the ruin and takes a Romanesque Revival form, low and heavy with a broad arched entrance, although the interior keeps the circular seating arrangement the congregation has always used, with the pews curving round the pulpit rather than facing it in rows. The graveyard behind holds several hundred stones, many with the winged skulls and cherubs of eighteenth-century New England carving, brought south by ship. A meeting house of 1806 by the same architect stood here before the fire and its foundations are marked in the yard.

Circular Congregational Church opening hours and the best time to go

Spring, particularly late March and April, is when Charleston is at its best, with the gardens out and the temperature bearable; summer is hot and humid and the afternoon thunderstorms are reliable. Hurricane season runs from June to November. The church is open on limited weekday hours and for Sunday worship, and visitors are welcome at the service. The Spoleto festival in late May and early June fills the city with performances, some of them in churches.

The graveyard is at its most photogenic in the early morning when the light comes through the live oaks. The market, the waterfront park and the antebellum houses south of Broad Street are all within fifteen minutes on foot, and the whole peninsula is flat and walkable. Charleston closes many attractions on Sundays, which is the day this church is most easily seen in use.