Discover McIntosh County's St. Andrew's Episcopal Church - At the direction of Bishop Stephen Elliot, a group of planters and other citizens of McIntosh County organized a mission congregation under the name St. Peter's Church, Darien in 1841.
A year later, the name of the congregation was changed to St. Andrew's and the congregation was admitted as a parish in the diocese in 1843. The first rector was the Rev. Richard T. Brown. The first church building was completed in 1844.
It was located a short distance north of the current St. Andrew's church. The civil war was not kind to Darien or St. Andrew's. From 1862 to 1866, the parish was abandoned. in 1863, Union troops, including the 54th Massachusetts under the command of Colonel Robert Shaw, burned Darien.
This action was ordered by Colonel Montgomery of Kansas, and Col. Shaw, who was reluctant to burn the town, wrote to his mother about his distress over the burning. Col. Shaw was killed in action shortly thereafter.
Some healing began when, after the war, Mrs. Shaw and some of her friends sent money to assist in the rebuilding of St. Andrew's. Although those funds were in fact used to construct a church at the Ridge, members of the parish eventually raised the funds to buy the lot where the Bank of Darien had previously stood and to construct the present St. Andrew's church building. The building was completed and consecrated in 1879.
In the years since 1879, the fortunes of St. Andrew's rose and fell with the fortunes of Darien in general. On several occasions, the status of St. Andrew's moved from that of a self-supporting parish to a mission and back again. In 1989, St. Andrew's regained parish status and has ever since been a self-supporting parish in the diocese of Georgia.
Contact and Address
Phone: 912-437-4562 - Location: Vernon Square, Darien Georgia 31305
Print a Georgia Coast and Islands Travel Region Map
