Matt and I drove back over to Ebenezer Landing, It looked like there was some event going on at Jerusalem Lutheran Church. We parked out of the way and tried to look touristy with cameras, rather than the swamp rats we were.
Next to the church is the Salzburger Museum, commemorating the original Ebenezer settlers from Austria. Barbara Scott was on duty, and gave us a tour of the museum as well as a tour of a replica of one of the settlers’ houses.
Barbara was able to put us in touch with one of the church members, Robert Peavy, who was able to give us a tour of the interior of the church. Robert pointed out some of the historic features of the church, such as the way the bricks were laid out.
During the Revolutionary War the church’s interior was basically demolished and used as stables by the British. The interior has been remodeled and the organ is a fairly recent addition. I asked about a slave gallery, and Robert said that the Salzburgers didn’t have slaves and that feature would not have been a part of this church.
Robert also pointed out some of the exterior features, such as fingerprints in the handmade bricks and bullet holes from either the Revolutionary War or the Civil War.
We thanked Robert for his hospitality and headed over to the historic cemetery. The cemetery contains the graves of some of the original Salzburger families. I did find several signature stones, but these were from firms in Savannah. There were even some wooden headstones. Of course, these had deteriorated to the point that they were illegible.
It was another incredible day of paddling and history. I wish we had been able to do our original float plan, but Plan B worked out quite well. We tried to think of other options, but most of them involve a shuttle from the Georgia side to the South Carolina side, which would be incredibly long.
Paddling problems aside, it was great learning about the history of Ebenezer. I’d definitely recommend this trip.
According to the link below, the landing closed because the property owners didn’t want to buy a business license and pay the costs that would have come with it:
https://www.savannahnow.com/article/20150618/NEWS/306189786
I grew up in a 150 y.o. brick house {my parents had 3 over their lifetime} so I noticed that brick construction right away. True brick construction is double walled with what is called a “tie layer” where the bricks are laid 90 degrees to the wall to connect the 2 walls together. Practically all brick houses have the tie layer every 7th layer or so, there can be a lot of variation.
Having a tie brick on each layer not only makes the construction considerably more expensive, but also much stronger. The small brick building next to The Bohemian restaurant in Greenville is built like that. I asked the owner, and he told me it used to be a Wells Fargo bank.