St. Helena Parish Chapel of Ease Ruins
Built around 1740 of tabby by enslaved laborers, this Anglican chapel of ease served planters who struggled to reach the parish church in Beaufort, until Union troops invaded in 1861 and a forest fire gutted it in 1886. Only its tabby walls and graveyard survive, added to the National Register in 1988.
The most retold legend centers on the 1852 mausoleum of plantation owner Edgar Fripp, whose vault door treasure-seekers tore away chasing rumors of buried gold; the Union commander is said to have ordered the entrance bricked up. Workmen sealed it, only to return next morning to find the bricks removed and neatly stacked beside the tomb, and abandoned the job.
Visitors to the moss-draped ruins still report a lady in white carrying a child through the graveyard and faint whispered prayers and singing.
📍 17 Lands End Road, St. Helena Island (Frogmore), SC 29920, Beaufort, SC · Get directions