About

Greater St. James African Methodist Episopal Church was founded  in 1883 by Rev. Hill and twenty-five charter members. Early services were held in a member's house on E. Main Street. The congregation purchased a lot at the corner of  Lake and N. Church Streets in 1885 and built its  first sanctuary, a frame building, that year. That church was renovated and enlarged in 1917. It was further renovated, adding a steeple, between 1948-50.     

In 1950 Rev. J.A. DeLaine (1898-1974) was transferred to Saint James 

from Pine Grove A.M.E Church in Summerton, South Carolina after  playing a leading role in Briggs v. Elliott, the   Clarendon County school desegregation case that led to Brown vs. Board of  Education (1954). Unknown   persons burned the church in October 1955. The congregation built a new sanctuary here, called Greater St. James A.M.E. Church, dedicated in 1957.