Circular Congregational Church

You're on Meeting Street now, standing in front of the building everyone in Charleston calls the Circular Church. Take a good look at its shape. It isn't a circle at all, but something more complex. Hold on to that, because the name is older than the building.

The street under your feet is named for this spot. Around 1681, Charleston's original settlers who dissented from the official church founded a congregation, and they put up a meeting house right here. They were English Congregationalists, Scots Presbyterians and French Huguenots, and the road leading to it became Meeting House Street, later shortened to Meeting Street. The church couldn't even settle on a label. Its own records say it let itself be called Presbyterian, Congregational or Independent, sometimes all three at once.