Prince Frederick’s chapel – a haunting (and maybe haunted) chapel ruins in South Carolina’s woods

3 min read

2 years ago Leo S

Is there anything more hauntingly beautiful than the dusty ruins of a 19th century gothic church?
South Carolina has more of them than you can imagine, including the ruins of Old Gunn Church, or Prince Frederick’s chapel, in Plantersville.
Ok, today it looks a little bit creepy, even if you don’t believe in ghosts but, believe it or not, it began with a bout of optimism.
It was November 1859, when Reverend Joseph Hunter, in the community of Plantersville, in the modern-day town of Georgetown, an hour’s drive south of Myrtle Beach, laid the first stones of a church that he hoped would become a central point in the local community to replace a smaller, insufficient church on the same property.
This was also a year and a half before the Civil War broke out, and changed not just Reverend Hunter’s plans but the future of the community itself.

The church was designed in the Gothic revival style, and construction began (and continued) with the hopes that the local rice industry, which depended on enslaved labor that once occupied the banks of the Pee Dee River, and its accompanying plantation society would flourish despite the outcome of the war and the efforts of Abraham Lincoln.
Due partly to its area’s ample water supplies and mostly to its use of slave labor, Georgetown County was once one of the world’s largest producers of rice. The Church Act of 1706 divided the South Carolina coastal region into 10 parishes, and It also established the Anglican Church as the official church of Carolina, thus rolling back the earlier promise of freedom of religion.
But when the Civil War ended, so did the old society life of plantations and gracious living. The former slaves, now freed and owning the right to vote, vastly outnumbered the whites, particularly along South Carolina’s coast, and It was a difficult time for all the citizens of Georgetown County.
Named for Prince Frederick of Wales, the son of King George II, the church took 17 years to build, was finished in 1876 and consecrated in the early spring of 1879.
By this point, the Civil War was long over, and the local economy had tanked. As a result, many potential congregants moved away from the area, and the project was abandoned to history and claimed by nature.
By 1966, the majority of the structure was deemed to be unsafe and all parts but the west-facing wall and the church’s tower were demolished.
What used to be the entrance to the church through the ground floor of the bell tower now leads to a hollow field.

In 1974, almost a century after its completion, the chapel was added to the National Register of Historic Places, which is why today you’ll see a chain link fence surrounding it and a nearby plaque explaining it.
And you might also find some visitors here to investigate an alleged haunting.
In fact, according to local lore, two brothers, Philip and Edward Gunn, were hired to build the church.
One of them, although it’s unclear which one, fell to his death from the roof of the church.
It’s rumored that ever since he fell off the roof, his screams are stuck in a time warp and are occasionally heard by visitors.
People in fact claim to have heard voices screaming near the site, but also bells ringing, or even curious lights near the tower’s peak.