The Church of the Holy Cross began as a chapel of ease to St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Clarendon County. In 1788, it was granted a charter as the Episcopal Church of Claremont. On September 11, 1850, the cornerstone of the present church was laid on the site of the old church, and its name was changed to the Church of the Holy Cross. The church is an unusually lovely mid-nineteenth century structure of pise de terre, or rammed earth, built in a simple but highly refined Gothic Revival style by architect Edward C. Jones of Charleston, S.C.