Shady Grove is a United Methodist Campground church meeting grounds. Similar to the Cypress and Indian Field sights. However Shady Grove was founded after the Civil War in 1870. The others are older, from the late 1700’s.
As with other Methodist Campgrounds meetings (revivals) are still held each year.
A Visit To Shady Grove
Shady Grove is on land given to a group of newly freed African American slaves in exchange for help harvesting a rice plantation.
A Visit To Shady Grove
Shady Grove has a history of troubles. In 1958, 1969, and 1978 the buildings were destroyed by fire. In 1991 the camp was rebuilt and is now the largest of their kind.
Click image to view full size.
A Visit To Shady Grove
A Visit To Shady Grove
A Visit To Shady Grove
A Visit To Shady Grove
A Visit To Shady Grove
A Visit To Shady Grove
A Visit To Shady Grove
A Visit To Shady Grove
A Visit To Shady Grove
The Methodist Campgrounds have been the source for numerous articles here.
To view additional Campgrounds please click the ‘Tag’ below marked Camp. The articles will be displayed…enjoy it’s a fascinating trip.
At a Methodist Campground, a location for community revival meetings, the cabins are referred to as tents.
Tents, Cabins
The Israelites erected 99 tents around their Tabernacle in Leviticus (pretty sure that’s the chapter) which is the exact design here. These 99 tents/cabins surround the Tabernacle in the center of the open field.
Tents, Cabins
Photographs taken outside St. George, South Carolina.
This tabernacle is surrounded by 99 ‘tents’, old cabins really, and is used for revival style Methodist Church meetings once a year. Camp meetings at Indian Field started in 1801, down the road, and moved here in 1838. A revival has been held here every year since.
Note; there are several camps around South Carolina, we have previously published articles on a few including this one.
Tabernacle At Indian Field
Very often the early “fire and brimstone” sermons would bring in more people than a house or a church building could handle. This tabernacle can seat about 1,000 people.
Tabernacle At Indian FieldTabernacle At Indian Field
The layout of Indian Fields is based on the biblical story of the Israelites erecting tents, representing the tribes of Israel, encircling a tabernacle. Electricity has been added as well as basic well water.
It’s best described as an adventure to experience and photograph all this history.
Recently we stopped by the grounds of the Cypress Methodist Camp. We were passing and looked to see if the wildflowers had taken the meadow over. We missed it.
Return Visit To Cypress Methodist Campground
I did get to shoot a wide image capturing both the tabernacle and camps.
Return Visit To Cypress Methodist Campground
As a review; this site was started in 1794, traveling preachers held week long meetings in rural locations like this. Campsites such as this one formed because worshipers would stay in tents for days to experience the revitalizing preaching while also enjoying a sense of community. Hence the name ‘revival meetings’.
Return Visit To Cypress Campground
The wooden cabins are still called tents and some are hundreds years old.
Each year, in September, a week long camp meeting continues the tradition.
Return Visit To Cypress Methodist Campground
There are several campgrounds like this still active in South Carolina.
Cypress Camp Ground was functional as early as 1794, and an adjacent cemetery contains graves from the early 1800s. The campground is in the general shape of a rectangle of 34 tents, or cabins, made of rough-hewn lumber. These cabins, rectangular shaped, are generally 1 1/2-stories and contain earthen floors.
Cypress Methodist Camp (3)
The ‘tents’ here form a rectangle around the open tabernacle where services and meetings are held. The image above is from inside a ‘tent’ looking out into the central square.
Notice the original old wooden pew, hand hewn post/beams and wrought iron ladder in the wall.
Cypress Methodist Camp (3)
It’s important the buildings maintain their original structure. Inside most beams, walls, and even nails and hinges are original.
Cypress Methodist Camp (3)
We were invited to visit and view the original structure, building history, even when and where repairs were made. Some of the old beams and poles were several hundred years old.
Cypress Methodist Camp (3)
In the kitchen area I noticed an antique dealers dream, the old flour cupboard still in use.
Cypress Methodist Camp (3)
Meetings are held in the fall here making a wood stove important in the main room. Maybe 100 years ago this could have been skipped, now everybody leaves here and goes home to a heated house after the week long meetings.
Cypress Methodist Camp (3)
Sleeping quarters are upstairs, this is a 1 1/2 story building. There is room in the attic area to accommodate sleeping quarters.
I had not seen a dust shield like above in many years. This even looked to be original type canvas. Boots climbing the stairs shake dust down on the tables below. The stairs have cloth tied under to catch dust and straw.
Visiting inside here, and the sanctuary, was an unexpected treat and we appreciate the hospitality of the Cypress Methodist community.
In the Lowcountry the 1700’s to the 1800’s were the time of rich plantation owners, huge plantations, slavery, and war.
Often forgotten were the rural farmers working to survive. The Camp Grounds around Methodist Churches was all about bring them together in a single location.
Cypress Methodist Camp (2)
As it was explained to us, there is a lot of history here, but little written or saved. It has been handed down through the years.
Cypress Methodist Camp (2)
Traveling preachers came through for the meetings, people first gathered in tents, then cabins were built when the meetings took on a more permanent nature.
These are some of those cabins. This meeting ground serves 4 local communities, and has since the 1780’s. Many of these ‘tents’ are the original, repairs are made but the rule is simple and tents are based on the first ones built.
Cypress Methodist Camp (2)
Over time electricity was brought in, water and ‘necessities’ are still out back.
Cypress Methodist Camp (2)
The tents here are in a rectangle all facing the open sided Tabernacle. Other remaining camps in the south are similar. I was once told there is a description of settlements in the old testament of the Bible which some have followed.
This is a multi part article, the subject and photographs are too large not to be.
General Background
In the late 1700’s, after the US revolutionary war, traveling preachers ‘rode the circuit’ visiting rural communities. They have been called revivals or camp meetings.
These were rural communities where record keeping was secondary to survival. History has been passed between the generations. Recently we were fortunate to have revisited with the current church, which still maintains a yearly camp meeting.
Cypress Methodist Camp (1)
There are several other functioning camp meetings in South Carolina. Other articles, and camps, are on this web site.
The Tabernacle
Cypress Methodist Camp (1)
At center of a camp ground is the Tabernacle, an open sided building for services and meetings. In a square, or rectangle, around the Tabernacle are the ‘tents’ or cabins where members stay for the time of the meetings. here a week a year.
The Tabernacle and Tents are rustic and by design little changed from the original structure. Families have owned their tents for generations. While some have been damaged and rebuilt, others are originals dating back over 200 years.
Cypress Methodist Camp (1)
Above is both the Tabernacle and some of the Tents.
Above is the Tabernacle seen from inside the doorway of a Tent.
Additional articles will be published documenting the Tents, inside and out, as well as the Church that owns the camp grounds and was gracious enough to allow us this visit.
