Senior Moments

Tabby (oyster shells, lime, ash, sand and water) was used in construction during the colonial period.

Betsy and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to St. Simons Island in June of this year.  The highlights of our time on the island were the Lighthouse, Epworth By The Sea, Fort Frederica, and Christ Church, Frederica.  But there were many other interesting things to see on the island.

I’ve always been fascinated by ships and the sea.  In 1961 I was in Boston and had the opportunity to tour U.S.S. Constitution, the famous Old Ironsides.  I must admit that it was awesome to be able to board that piece of history.

One of the places we visited on St. Simons was Gascoigne’s Bluff.  The bluff has been an Indian settlement before the English arrived, the site of the most beautiful plantation on the island, and the headquarters of a Spanish invasion in 1742.  But what was most interesting to me was the fact that the timbers that were used to construct Old Ironsides in 1794 came from trees growing on Gascoigne’s Bluff.  In 1874 timbers from this bluff were used in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.

We also visited two slave cabins on what was once the Hamilton Plantation.

We also visited the site of the Battle of Bloody Marsh.  This was the place where the British ambushed the Spanish in 1742 and won a decisive victory which resulted in the Spanish leaving St. Simons Island and returning to St. Augustine.

To see more of St. Simons Island click HERE.

Christ Church, Frederica, St. Simons Island. June 25, 2008.

While Betsy and I were visiting St. Simons Island in Georgia, we stopped at Christ Church, Frederica.  Christ Church is an Episcopal Church built on the site of the first Episcopal church on the island.

Actually, the history of worship on the site goes back even further.  In March, 1736, Charles Wesley held worship services for the new settlers at Frederica.  In 1737 John Wesley established a church for the people of Frederica and the other settlement on the island, Fort St. Simon.  When John Wesley left St. Simons he was replaced by George Whitefield.  All three men held services on the site of the present church.

The building of a church structure was delayed by the Revolutionary War, and it wasn’t until 1810 that the construction of a church building on the site began.  The building was completed in 1820 and used until the Civil War.

Returning at the end of the Civil War, residents of St. Simons found Union troops had destroyed much of the church.  Windows had been broken, pews smashed and burned, the roof was heavily damaged and both the altar and the organ had been destroyed.

The congregation met in homes until 1884, when Anson Green Phelps Dodge rebuilt the church as a memorial to his first wife.  It is this church which we visited.  The church building is cruciform in design, with a trussed Gothic roof.  The building contains beautiful stained glass windows depicting incidents in the life of Christ and the early history of the church on St. Simons.

To see more of our visit to Christ Church click HERE.