Discover Gaston: Churches, Collard Festivals, and Community Garden

In Gaston, church history, Collard festivals, and community gardening come together as distinct local themes. For planning your trip, they offer different points of focus: the development of two congregations, the connection between collard greens and agriculture, and community activities centered on fresh vegetables. This makes it possible to understand Gaston through both historical milestones and harvests, food, and a past gardening program.

Church History: From Founding to the Present-Day Building

First Baptist Church of Gaston was founded in 1824 as Sandy Run Baptist Church. Heyward African Methodist Episcopal Church is believed to have been founded in the early 1820s as “Bush Harbor.” People came from faraway places on rafts to attend services. The stories emphasize different details: the founding name Sandy Run on the one hand, and Bush Harbor and travel by raft on the other.

The development of the property of Heyward African Methodist Episcopal Church also took place in several stages. The first church stood on the site of today’s cemetery. After more land was acquired, it was moved closer to its present location. The current building was constructed in the 1950s. The property includes a sanctuary, a fellowship hall, and a cemetery. To understand the timeline, it is helpful to consider the relocation of the first church and the construction of the current building as separate stages.

Collard Festivals: Harvest, Parade, and Food

The Gaston Collard Festival grew out of a community celebration centered on collard greens as an expression of Gaston’s agricultural history. The Gaston Collard Festival includes a parade. The annual Gaston Collard & Barbeque Festival celebrates the fall harvest with collard greens and barbecue; the program also includes live music and free rides. The festival theme therefore encompasses both its connection to the harvest and a program featuring music and rides.

Festival plates include collard greens, barbecue, black-eyed peas, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, pound cake, and tea or lemonade. These dishes give a concrete sense of the festival’s culinary side. Menu details may vary from year to year. So if you would like to plan your trip around a festival, check the dates and food selection for the year you have in mind.

Community Garden and Cooking Together

Anyone can pick fresh vegetables from the Community Garden at Gaston Library. A past program at Gaston Branch Library on July 9 was titled “Community: Garden-to-Table.” During the program, 12 participants harvested fresh vegetables from the community garden and used them to make salads and vegetable spring rolls. Thus, the garden theme includes both open picking and a past group harvest and meal preparation.

The churches, Collard festivals, and Community Garden offer different points of interest for planning your trip: the historical development of congregations, the harvest and festival program, or community gardening. Discover more destinations: Cayce, West Columbia, South Congaree, Irmo, Lexington, Pelion.

Go to the main travel overview: Lexington.