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All the United States South Carolina Charleston Unitarian Church Cemetery

Unitarian Church Cemetery

Paths are maintained, but trees have taken over plots.

Charleston, South Carolina

Added By
Adam Shaffer
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Overgrown headstones at the Unitarian Cemetery.   Tasha Judd
A tree takes over a gravestone.   Cornchops / Atlas Obscura User
Headstones at the Unitarian Cemetery.   Tasha Judd
Guards at the gate   mosherhmh / Atlas Obscura User
Untouched beauty   mosherhmh / Atlas Obscura User
Just inside the gate   mosherhmh / Atlas Obscura User
  Collector of Experiences / Atlas Obscura User
  asdonkar / Atlas Obscura User
  asdonkar / Atlas Obscura User
  asdonkar / Atlas Obscura User
  asdonkar / Atlas Obscura User
  asdonkar / Atlas Obscura User
  asdonkar / Atlas Obscura User
A monument in the Unitarian Cemetery.   Tasha Judd
An ornate monument in the Unitarian Cemetery.   Tasha Judd
Headstones at the Unitarian Cemetery.   Tasha Judd
A cross in the Unitarian Cemetery.   Tasha Judd
Charleston’s Unitarian Church.   Tasha Judd
The view from the back of the cemetery.   angelibelly / Atlas Obscura User
Dawn in the cemetery   kgibsone / Atlas Obscura User
  kgibsone / Atlas Obscura User
An angel guards Margaret Aichel’s late 1800’s grave.   BelleAurore / Atlas Obscura User
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  jpns / Atlas Obscura User
If you have a chance to go inside, take it!   jpns / Atlas Obscura User
  asdonkar / Atlas Obscura User
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In a city with many churches and graveyards, the cemetery at the Unitarian Church stands out. Pathways here are maintained for visitors, but the plots and the grave markers have been given over to nature. Vines, shrubs, and trees grow among, around, and through the cemetery. In a picture displayed above, you can clearly see a tree taking over a gravestone.

That's how the dead would want it, which is why they wanted to be buried here: to spend eternity giving back to nature.

The Unitarian Church is the second oldest in the city, built for the first time in 1772 and rebuilt in 1854. Its churchyard is supposedly haunted and many believe that it is by the subject of one of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous poems: Annabel Lee. Annabel was a woman who lived in Charleston before the Civil War broke out. She fell in love with a sailor who was stationed at the nearby naval base, but her father didn't approve of the relationship and forbid her from seeing him. The two couldn't stay apart, though, and would often meet at the Unitarian Cemetery. One night, Annabel's father saw the two, became furious, and decided to lock her in a room for several months as punishment.

During the time that Annabel was locked in her room, the sailor she loved was transferred back to Virginia and the two were never able to see each other again. Months later, Annabel died of Yellow Fever, though many claim it was a broken heart that killed her. After learning of her death, the sailor arranged to come back to Charleston to visit her grave. The father, though, suspected this might happen and had Annabel's grave placed beneath others in the family and left the site unmarked—which could explain why her name isn't in the church's records. The sailor never found which plot belonged to his lover.

Another popular horror story revolves around Mary Bloomfield, a resident of Charleston more than one hundred years ago. Bloomfield believed that she was happily married, but her husband departed for Boston on business one night and was never to return. Mrs. Bloomfield was heartbroken and some say they have seen her ghost wandering the paths of the Unitarian Cemetery, where she is still looking for her husband.

Related Tags

Cemeteries Churches Memento Mori Catacombs And Crypts Ghosts Haunted Sacred Spaces

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Cornchops

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Mom0ja, Noellwolf, Molly McBride Jacobson, nancygroh...

  • Mom0ja
  • Noellwolf
  • Molly McBride Jacobson
  • nancygroh
  • kgibsone
  • asdonkar
  • mosherhmh
  • angelibelly
  • BelleAurore
  • Collector of Experiences
  • jpns
  • darlandjan
  • Craig H

Published

July 19, 2011

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Sources
  • Grave Addiction: Unitarian Churchyard: http://www.graveaddiction.com/unitarch.html
  • Historic Wanderings: The Unitarian Church Cemetery, Charleston, SC: 1: http://historicwanderings.blogspot.com/2011/03/unitarian-church-cemetery-charleston-sc_24.html
Unitarian Church Cemetery
4 Archdale St.
Charleston, South Carolina, 29401
United States
32.778565, -79.934437
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