Azalea Season is Better Than Ever!

For years, decades really, I have driven by this church in Summerville on the way to my church. 

In March and April, it has some of the best azaleas around. Keep reading for photos of azaleas at my house and at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston. 

After my Mass ended nearby, I decided to park near this church and walk around the grounds. The service was still going on inside so I was careful to keep my distance and be quick and quiet with my photography. 

 

This is St. Paul’s Anglican Church. Built in 1857 to replace the church built nearby in 1830, it is one of Summerville’s oldest and most historic houses of worship. 

It has ties with the Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site in that the church formed there in 1717, St. George's Parish Church, evolved into St. Paul's. At the park off Dorchester Road can be seen what remains of the church and its bell tower. 

St. Paul's Anglican is Summerville’s oldest extant church with the second oldest congregation. Summerville Presbyterian has the oldest congregation. 

I think it is safe to say that St. Paul’s has the most beautiful and abundant azalea bushes of perhaps any church in the Charleston area. 

A churchyard wraps around the church. According to Find a Grave, more than 1,000 people are buried here. They include a Civil War Union (not Confederate) general and World War II U.S. fighter pilot. In February 1945, 2nd Lt. John David Alexander was flying a P-51 Mustang over Bavaria, Germany when he was killed. He was just 21 years old. He is buried in the Lorraine American Cemetery in France (more than 10,000 Americans who died in Europe in World War II are interred there). A small marker here at St. Paul’s is a “cenotaph” memorial. 

On a return visit to the churchyard on June 2 I was able to find Lt. Alexander's cenotaph in a family plot just to the left of the church. I found it with the help of a nice lady in the church office. It helped too that American flags are still by the graves of military veterans. Memorial Day was last week. 

Writing on the stone says Lt. Alexander flew with the 325th Fighter Group that was part of the 15th Air Force. And then it says "Italy." This website details the formation and service of the 325th in North Africa and Europe.

To the right of the church is the fenced grave of the Union Civil War officer Robert Monroe Hall (1828-1874) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

During the 1861-1865 war Hall rose to the rank of Union brevet general. At one point he commanded the 38th U.S. Colored Troops. Hall stayed in the U.S. Army until his death when his rank was 1st lieutenant, according to a Find a Grave post about him. He lived in Summerville at the time of his death in 1874 at age 47. 

                                The name E.R. White is at the bottom of the stone. Edwin White and his brothers William and Robert were part of a generational Charleston marble works company. The family's gravestones, often signed, can be found all over South Carolina and beyond. They are mentioned a number of times in my Magnolia Cemetery and  "Churchyards of Charleston" books.

The churchyard also features this large monument to the Civil War's Confederate soldiers. It was erected on Memorial Day May 10, 1915 (110 years ago). 

Click on this image to better read the inscribed message about the Confederate soldiers being honored. The Memorial Day memorial was created and unveiled on this spot by the
C. Irvine Chapter No. 190 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. I found this 2017 article about how the chapter, first chartered in 1898, was being reactivated.

The large die-on-base stone (left) marks the grave of Anna Euretta Richardson (1883-1931). Her Find a Grave site describes her as a “National Educator.” She taught at several colleges outside of her native South Carolina. Her positions included being dean of home economics at Iowa State College (now university) and she was a prominent participant in a White House Conference on Child Welfare.

So why are there so many luscious azalea bushes on the church property? 

The historic-minded SC Picture Project offers these details:  "Catherine Porter Tupper, a longtime resident of Summerville, shared the following: “My father, Lockwood Tupper, used to spend a lot of time working in the churchyard. If we couldn’t find Dad, Mother would say, 'Check the churchyard.'

"Widows would call and ask him to take care of their husbands’ graves. He would dig up azaleas and camellias in our yard and transplant them around the graves of friends and family at St. Paul’s. Then, he would load up a truckload of manure from our stables or the farm and fertilize the plants. I have seen photos before and after Dad started planting bushes. There is quite a difference.’”  

Indeed, what a lovely contribution was made by Mr. Tupper!

Happy Easter to all and thank you St. Paul’s Church for the blessing of this spring treat each year! 

Meantime, back at the ranch, our azalea bushes fulfilled their short-lived but splendid annual delight.

They are a true harbinger of spring.

This was on March 17 when the buds were beginning to blossom. 

Within a week of the above image the bushes were filling out, making for this lovely view from our house as we go up and down the stairs. 

Azaleas come in a rainbow of colors. We have a nice variety on or adjacent to our property. 

Alas, as I’m writing this on Sunday, April 6 the vibrant flowers are already falling to the ground. All too short is our azalea season.

This lovely red azalea bush in the very back of our backyard is near a golf course pond.

Another place where I enjoy photographing azaleas is Magnolia Cemetery. I have written books about this beautiful and historic Victorian necropolis. See my book information at the top of this blog and on my Amazon author site. 

This is the Smith-Whaley mausoleum, a pyramid that was built for a wealthy banker in the 1890s. 

Spanish moss hanging from live oak trees is prevalent here, making for interesting imagery. 

Magnolia Cemetery’s 150 acres are filled with gravestones of all shapes and sizes, complemented by diverse trees, plants and brilliant azalea bushes in places. 

It is fun to photograph such beauty especially knowing how the full-glory azalea bloom usually lasts only a month or so.  

Three crews of the Confederate submarine Hunley are interred together on this special spot. 

Three large tablets list the names of the three crews. Two crews perished in training exercises and the final one after in February 1864 plunging a large explosive into a Union blockade ship called Housatonic. The Hunley submarine crew never returned to safe harbor. It wasn’t until 1995 that the Hunley vessel was found on the ocean floor. Recovery and restoration continues in a lab on the old Charleston U.S. Navy Base. 

Visitors are welcome to the lab and to the Hunley Museum. Back to the azaleas, they just make everything look better and more interesting wouldn’t you agree?