A Presbyterian congregation at Old Pickens was probably organized in the 1840's, though the exact date cannot be fixed because church records were destroyed in a fire around the turn of the 20th century. Construction of the church began in 1849 and was completed two years later, using bricks made from clay from the banks of the Keowee River. Its original heart pine floors, pulpit, and pews survive, and a side entrance leads to a gallery used by the slaves. The cemetery contains over 200 grave sites, with the earliest belonging to Lt. Joseph Reed and bearing the dates 1750-1825. The church is the sole surviving building on the site of the lost town of Pickens Courthouse. That town was selected in 1828 as the courthouse site for the new Pickens District and named for Revolutionary War hero General Andrew Pickens. Laid out eight blocks long by four wide, it grew by the mid-1800s to include hotels, general stores, a jail, an academy, a Presbyterian church, many residences, and the courthouse. In 1868, when Pickens District was divided into Pickens and Oconee Counties, the “new” Pickens, fourteen miles away, became the new county seat, and many structures, including the courthouse, were moved there.