The Dirt Church

"Let's go see a dirt church," I said after lunch one Sunday afternoon last year.

"What?" she asked, but added, "We need to get out of the house this afternoon instead keeping our noses in the TV."

Many have heard the term "common as dirt" and then there was the movie "Joe Dirt". The term "dirt" refers to unclean matter. But, when used as a building material it is soil. The correct term for dirt, i.e. soil construction is rammed earth. This construction method was first used in China as long ago as 5000 BC and is used on virtually every continent except Antarctica. The process is actually very simple: forms are made of wood, and earth is packed inside the forms. The form is removed, and the wall remains standing.  The earth is sometimes a mixture of clay, sand, and gravel and is lightly damp. It is compacted to one half its original size. For example, if earth is piled into a form to the four foot level, it is then damped down (compacted) to the two foot level.
This type of construction has many advantages, particularly in the low cost of building material. Several pages were allotted to this in  The Whole Earth Catalogue and The Last Whole Earth Catalogue.  These publications were popular with communes in the '60s. In the 1930s the Department of Agriculture and Clemson College did research into the method of construction as well.

There are two prominent structures of rammed earth construction in South Carolina, and it was our intent to see one of them. We knew that the Church of the Holy Cross in Sumter County near the town of Stateburg was one of them.  Instead of following I-26 and I-95 for the bulk of the trip, we avoided the interstate highways and took the backroads through the open country and small towns.  The church was at 335 North Kings Highway.  The original wooden church was built on land donated by General Thomas Sumter, the "Gamecock" of the American Revolution, from whom Sumter County gets its name. The current church built in 1850-51 is a National Historic Landmark. It is of Victorian High Gothic Revival Style and constructed using the aforementioned Pise’ de Terre  method.  One method of financing was to sell pews, as was the custom, with premium pews demanding higher prices. 

Although we were unable to enter this active Anglican church we were able to enjoy its exterior beauty. As is our custom we did scout the cemetery for notables. We saw the burial places for veterans of all wars from the American Civil War to more current conflicts. 

"Claudette, I've found a grave that will make you think of Christmas," I announced.

"What? You have found a grave that will make me think of Christmas?" she asked, "What is it some more sheep carved of stone like the shepherds had in the Christmas story?"

"No," I said laughingly, "It's nothing to do with the Christmas story."

She joined me at the headstone of the grave of  Joel Roberts Poinsett. "Could the poinsettia have been named for him?" She asked.

"You're absolutely right!  When the physician, botanist, and statesman was in Mexico he brought the plant back to the U.S.A."

Soon we would leave South Carolina's only dirt church without realizing that the plantation house we saw across from the church was constructed of rammed earth also. As we were driving home, Claudette mused, "Who would believe that dirt could be so beautiful?"

"Yes, but government building codes don't allow it to be used as a building material now. No more dirt churches"