Worship With Us at the Old Brick Church!
Reformation Sunday, October 25 at 3pm
OBC General History
The historic place of worship was built in 1788, but there was a congregation in existence before the American Revolution. The most important event in the church’s rich history occurred on May 9, 1803. It was then that the Associate Reformed Synod of the Carolinas was organized at OBC to become one of the four synods that constituted the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, which had been earlier organized in 1782 in Philadelphia. Each Synod became independent, and by 1822 the Synod of the Carolinas, which had grown beyond the Carolinas, became the Synod of the South. Although the northern synods formed a new denomination in 1859 (United Presbyterian Church), the Synod of the South retained the name, Associate Reformed Presbyterian. Damaged by Union troops in 1865, the church was repaired and remained in active use until 1920. Catawba Presbytery formed the OBC Commission in March 2007 to oversee and maintain the building and its properties, and to organize a special worship service at least every 5 years.
Service Details
Highway 213, 14 miles West of Winnsboro, SC
Hosted by the Catawba Presbytery’s OBC Commission
Join us for a special worship service celebrating Reformation Sunday at the historic Old Brick Church, birthplace of the ARP Church.
- Faithful preaching with Rev. Clint Davis of Chester ARP
- Witness through music with the Centennial ARP Church Choir
- Great fellowship!
This unique gathering serves to remind us of the role this church played in the founding and life of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Come celebrate our heritage and worship together. All are welcome!
History of the Old Brick Church
The Birthplace of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
BUILT IN 1788
Originally called the Little River Church and more commonly known as the Old Brick Church, Ebenezer Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church is the birthplace of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church as it exists today.
On May 9, 1803, the church was the site of a gathering of ministers and church elders that resulted in the formation of the Associate Reformed Synod of the Carolinas, later to become the ARP Church. Today, it is revered as the “mother church” of the ARP denomination.
It is one of only a handful of eighteenth-century church buildings remaining in the Midlands. Built in 1788, the church sits on a site along the Little River about twelve miles from Winnsboro. It is unusual in that it is made of brick; most meeting houses were wood-frame buildings. It replaced an earlier log church erected soon after Seceder Presbyterians from Scotland and Ireland began settling in the area in the 1770s.
The bricks were hand-molded on-site by members of the congregation. Mrs. Hutchinson, a member of the church, said that she remembered hearing her mother and others tell, that after the crops were laid by, that their fathers and grandfathers would go to the brickyard, and tramp the mud into mortar with their bare feet, put it into molds with their hands, carry it out in the sun to dry, then burning the kilns by night and day, and that to them it was a labor of love and pleasure.
The interior is austere and features long, straight-backed wooden pews, a dais-style pulpit, and a slave gallery. The surrounding wall, steps, and foundation of the Old Brick Church were rebuilt using local blue granite rock in 1852.
Under the ministry of the Reverend James Rogers, the congregation grew until the Civil War. It became dormant in the postbellum era and eventually disappeared from the rolls of the Presbytery before being reorganized by the Reverend A. G. Kirkpatrick in the early 1890s.
The congregation began holding its regular meetings at a new building in the 1920s but continued to gather at the Old Brick Church for special services, a tradition that continues to this day. In 2007, the Old Brick Church Commission was appointed to care for the church and its cemetery.
OLD BRICK CHURCH
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, the church is also known for an inscription left on an interior wall by a Union soldier during the late stages of the Civil War.
While in pursuit of retreating Confederate forces, Union troops removed portions of the floor and joists to rebuild a bridge over the Little River.
One soldier was so troubled by the undertaking that he penciled an apology on an interior wall: “Citizens of this community – please excuse us for defacing your house of worship so much. It was absolutely necessary to effect a crossing over the creek. A Yankee.”
