When the tambourine played on Dubois Lane

There are places in old Bluffton that disappeared so quietly that, unless somebody saved a photograph or took the time to write down a memory, you might never know they were here. One of those places stood on DuBois Lane, where a small wooden church was once filled with preaching, prayer, music and the sound of a tambourine keeping time. It was called Ark of the Savior.

It wasn’t a grand church with stained-glass windows or a steeple reaching above the trees. It was a simple, one-room Holiness church tucked among family homes, similar in many ways to the small praise houses that had long been part of the Lowcountry landscape. These were intimate places where faith and community lived close together and where a small building could hold a much larger place in the lives of the people who gathered there.

By the 1950s, Ark of the Savior had taken its place on DuBois Lane. At the heart of the little church was Margaret Taylor, a woman whose journey to that homemade pulpit had begun many years earlier and many miles away. Born in Savannah and raised for much of her childhood in Augusta, Margaret eventually found her way back toward the Lowcountry.

In 1956, Margaret experienced what she described as a spiritual calling during a revival. Whatever doubts she may have carried before that night, faith would become a defining part of the rest of her life. Eventually, she found herself preaching inside that little church on DuBois Lane.

Thankfully, somebody thought to take pictures while Ark of the Savior was still alive with worship. In one, Margaret stands behind a simple, handmade pulpit, smiling with her hands raised, while the words “SAVIOR FOR ARK” are painted across its front. Nearby sits her mother, Susie Mae, tambourine in hand, while a drum waits close by. The photograph is silent, of course, but when you look at it long enough, the room somehow doesn’t feel quiet.

On Sundays, there was Bible study, preaching and music. Visiting Holiness congregations sometimes traveled to Bluffton, and those Sundays could turn into all-day gatherings, with food prepared and people staying together for hours. Margaret’s younger sister, Theodosia, would later remember a childhood filled not only with Sunday worship but also Bible studies, weekday services and youth gatherings.

For such a little church, there was plenty of life inside those wooden walls. But perhaps the best way to understand Ark of the Savior isn’t through the building at all. It is through what happened when somebody needed help, because one story preserved from 1983 tells us something about Margaret and this little congregation that dates and names never could.

While attending a Holiness church gathering in Columbia, Margaret encountered a mother and her three daughters who were facing a difficult situation and needed somewhere safe to go. Margaret didn’t have a large house or plenty of extra room waiting back in Bluffton, but that apparently wasn’t enough to stop her. She brought the family home with her.

A small trailer nearby became available, giving the mother and her girls a place to stay. Before long, they became part of the community surrounding Ark of the Savior. The children played with the others, their mother joined the music during services, and a family that had arrived in Bluffton needing somewhere to go found people willing to make room for them.

That small act may tell us more about Ark of the Savior than anything else preserved about it. The little wooden church on DuBois Lane was a place to worship, but it was also a place where people shared meals, looked after one another and opened their community to someone who needed it.

For years, Margaret continued preaching behind that homemade pulpit while her mother’s tambourine kept time, the drum joined in and voices filled the little room before carrying outside into the Bluffton air. For a while, that was simply part of life on DuBois Lane. But like so many pieces of old Bluffton, it would not last forever, and eventually the music coming from Ark of the Savior would grow quiet.

Part Two will tell what happened to the little church on DuBois Lane and how close its story came to disappearing along with it.

Paul Tollefson is the Director of Tennis at the Hampton Hall Club. After moving from Hilton Head to Bluffton he became enthralled with the history of the town and the people and cultures that call it home. He has found a passion in writing and enjoys being able to share the stories and pictures of long-time locals. He is the co-creator of the Facebook page “Bluffton Then and Now.”