Visit to Fort Moultrie - Friday - October, 21, 2011

Nancy here:  This is the first part of our day trip to Charleston.  I know you have already seen the Bridge Walk Blog.  If you haven't seen it,  just click here.  Like I said, these are out of sequence since we stopped at  Fort Moultrie in the morning and then over to the bridge in the afternoon.  Oh well, the photos are nice regardless of what order they appear ;o))  Let’s just said it all happened on the SAME day!!

Remember to click on any photo to enlarge!

It was a beautiful day for a ride.  We left home about 8:30 and headed south on Rt. 17 toward Mt. Pleasant.  We took the Isle of Palm Connector over the Intercoastal Waterway. 

View crossing the Intercoastal Waterway

We headed south and crossed the bridge to Sullivan's Island.

View crossing the inlet to Sullivan's Island

Once on Sullivan's Island you just continue to

the southern most tip of the island to find Fort Moutrie.

(Take note of the church in the background)

Arriving at Fort Moultrie  

We went into the visitors center to purchase Nancy’s

Senior National Park Pass and a National Park Passport.

They have a very nice visitor center and a wonderful movie. 

Since we had just been here last year to buy my pass,

we didn’t spend time to redo those things. 

We highly recommend allowing time on your first visit to do both.

It was such a beautiful day,

Nancy wanted to climb the stairs to the roof of the visitor’s center

to take a couple photos.

Views of Fort Moultrie from the Visitor’s Center Roof

We did not go into Fort Moutrie today,

but we did spend about an hour

walking the grounds around the fort. 

Entrance to Fort Moultrie

You can see the photos we took last year from inside the fort here.

As we headed around Fort Moultrie towards the water,
we saw this large freighter entering Charleston Harbor.

It looked like it was about to ram Fort Sumter!!

We walked down to the beach and off to the west,

we could see the bridge we were going to walk later today.

Across the harbor, we could see the City of Charleston.

This is the view of Fort Moultrie looking back from the beach.

Display of the guns that were used at the fort.

As we headed back towards the car,

we saw this sign about Sullivan's Island and

its role in Slavery.

(be sure to click to enlarge)

We learned some history we did not know today.

Nancy had one last thing she wanted to check out. 

She wanted to see the church that is right next to Fort Moultrie.

It is a beautiful old church that sits right on the corner

across the street from the fort.

Literally, on the CORNER!!

There was no name on the outside of the church.

However, it was open and we went in.

There was the name...

'Stella Maris Catholic Church'

of

Moultrieville, SC!!



The Sanctuary and Stained Glassed Windows were beautiful!!

Nancy did a little research and found out the following on the Internet:

 

Sullivan's Island, the home of Fort Moultrie, suffered extensive bombardment by Federal troops, and by the end of the war, in 1865, the church was the only public building left standing on the island. Father Timothy Bermingham, the Vicar General of the Diocese of Charleston, took up Sullivan's Island as a special project in the late 1860s. He first planned to rehabilitate the old church. By 1868, however, Father Bermingham developed the idea that a new church building should be the centerpiece for a restoration of Sullivan's Island as a popular resort.

Father Bermingham bought the present church lot in October, 1868, for $100. He secured permission from the Secretary of War to use bricks from the ruins of Fort Moultrie to build the new church; indeed, in his enthusiasm for the project, he occasionally had to be physically restrained from tearing down additional walls of the Fort to secure even more bricks. On 18 January 1869 Father Bermingham laid the cornerstone for the new church, which he first called Saint Mary, Star of the Sea, or Stella Maris.

We are really glad we visited this historic church.

But now, we had to cross the little bridge

from Sullivan's Island to Mt. Pleasant

to find the big bridge over Charleston Harbor!!

 

It has been a great day so far and

I have no doubt,

things will be looking up ;o))