Columbia Seminary Chapel

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Mills moved to Philadelphia in 1802 where he became an associate and student of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. He gradually became known in his own right. In 1820, he was appointed as acting commissioner of the Board of Public Works in South Carolina. In 1823, Mills was the superintendent of public buildings. In the next few years, he designed numerous buildings in South Carolina including court houses, the campus of the University of South Carolina, jails, and the Fireproof Building in Charleston.

In 1830, the mansion was acquired by the Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina and Georgia for a seminary campus, and the carriage house was converted into a chapel for the Columbia Theological Seminary. The main arched doorway was removed and replaced with a smaller rectangular window. Additional sash windows were probably added then to light the chapel, but this is not documented. These windows probably were not in place during the building’s time as a stable. The stalls were removed and replaced with pews and a pulpit on a raised wood floor for the chancel. The ca. 1830 chapel remains basically unaltered. In 1886, David Bancroft Johnson requested the use of the Little Chapel as a classroom for the inaugural academic year of Winthrop Training School. The Seminary was closed because of an internal religious dispute. Permission was granted by the Presbyterian Church and the Little Chapel became the birthplace of Winthrop as an institution. The Little Chapel only served Winthrop as a classroom during its inaugural year. In the fall of 1887, the Winthrop Training School moved to a much larger building on Marion Street in Columbia, SC which contained four large rooms and the chapel returned to its prior use as a religious center for the Columbia Theological Seminary. In 1927, the seminary moved to Decatur, GA. and the Little Chapel was left vacated. With pleas from the Winthrop Alumnae Association, Winthrop began a campaign to have the structure moved to Rock Hill. Their efforts were rewarded when the Seminary Board of Directors presented the Chapel to Winthrop on May 7, 1936. Plans were then set into motion to transport the building, brick by brick, to the Winthrop campus in Rock Hill, SC.