History In a Can

I recently went to Aiken, SC for work.  I had never been there before and decided to use the voice activation on my Droid to navigate down there.  "Navigate to Aiken South Carolina", I said.  The screen worked out my request and responded with what it heard, "Navigate to A Can South Carolina".  Yeah.  Navigate me to "a can".   I ended up navigating to a nearby town and then looking at the map for the answer.

Once I arrived I quickly realized that Aiken, South Carolina is one of the most beautiful cities in this state.  The downtown streets are divided with massive green spaces and trees.  It really felt like I was driving through a park through most of town.  For my lunch break, I decided to head back into town and take a short walking tour.

I parked at St. Johns Methodist church and walked around the property for a few minutes before crossing the street to Aiken First Baptist church.  Both churches had some really interesting history that I was able to pick up quickly.

St. Johns was built in 1964 and placed on the location of the old churches cemetery.  The persons buried there were reburied and a plaque was placed on the side of the building listing those people.  The marble plaque on the building talked about building a church in troubled times (the initial church was built around the time of the Civil War) and that God will withstand all of this.

Over at the Baptist church the first thing that got my attention was a small cemetery in the back of the building.  I recognized the small white stones as civil war era veterans.  Around the front side of the church I noticed another cemetery that was right up against the building.  More grave markers listed soldiers from the 1860's.  Something that I have never noticed anywhere else is that both Union and Confederate soldiers are buried here.   The Baptist church has an enormous entrance on the street.  Huge columns greeted me as I walked around to the front.  It's an awesome building.

I didn't make it much farther than the churches and one or two nearby blocks before my hour was up, but I already know that I want to make another trip back to "A Can" on my own time to explore this historical and beautiful city.