St. Matthew’s was founded in 1840 as the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Charleston. The rapidly growing German population in Charleston resulted in a booming congregation at the Anson Street church, which soon required a bigger location. Land was purchased at the corner of King and Vanderhorst Streets, and the present site of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church was built between 1867 and 1872. When the newly built St. Matthew’s was dedicated in March of 1872, a parade of parishioners marched from the old site to the new King Street location.
Designed by a Charleston architect, the gothic-style building features the original pulpit as well as many of the original stained glass windows. The church’s towering 255-foot steeple is the tallest steeple in South Carolina. It was rebuilt after the devastating fire of 1965 that ignited when a light fixture overheated, setting the church ablaze and sending the steeple crashing 18 feet into the ground, where remnants of it still remain.
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