Pon Pon Chapel of Ease, Parker's Ferry Road, 1 mile from South Carolina Highway 64, Jacksonboro, Colleton County, SC

2015 Leicester B. Holland Prize, Honorable Mention
Significance: In 1706 the Anglican Church was established in the state of South Carolina through the passing of the Church Act. This act effectively created and funded ten parishes throughout the state, including the Parish of St. Bartholomew's in which Pon Pon Chapel of Ease is located. Situated along the Edisto River in southeastern Colleton County, near the present day area of Jacksonboro, South Carolina, St. Bartholomew's Parish was originally a Native American settlement referred to as "Pon Pon". While religious services were held regularly throughout the parish following the Yemassee War, the first chapel of ease on this site was constructed in 1725. A Chapel of Ease is a place of worship built to accommodate parishioners who lived too far from the parish's main church. These chapels were traditionally built on tracts of land donated for community use by local plantation owners, who in turn comprised the chapel's congregation.

The original 1725 wooden chapel on the Pon Pon site served a large body of people and attracted visitors such as the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, who preached at the Pon Pon Chapel of Ease in 1737. After a hurricane badly damaged the chapel, it was rebuilt in brick in 1754. The chapel is believed to have been partially rebuilt or fully reconstructed in 1822 as result of an 1801 fire which dubbed the chapel the "Burnt Church". The ruins present at the site today match the footprint of the earlier 1754 church. The original building stood one story high, three bays wide and likely five bays long. It featured rounded arch window and door openings, as well as two oculus windows on the primary façade. The remaining brickwork present at the site's ruins alludes to two brick bond patterns, an English bond below the water table and a Flemish bond above. The top of the front façade is additionally lines with rowlock headers. Despite the 1754 and 1822 reconstructions, the chapel began to fall into disrepair as parishioners moved away from the area during nineteenth century. In 1959, Hurricane Gracie damaged what remained of the chapel, demolishing the building's front curvilinear gable. Following the chapel's nomination to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, efforts were taken to partially reconstruct and stabilize the front façade in 1975. Today, plans for further stabilization and conservation of the existing fabric are under consideration.

The Colleton County Historical and Preservation Society currently cares for the Pon Pon Chapel of Ease. Though in partial ruins, this chapel and graveyard serve as a reminder of early eighteenth-century Anglican beginnings and particularly of the proliferation of chapels of ease throughout the Lowcountry to address the religious needs of remote plantation inhabitants.
Survey number: HABS SC-883
Building/structure dates: 1725 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1754 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1822 Subsequent Work
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 72001205