Tyrrell County was created at the same time. Around 1710, Spruill’s Chapel or St. Paul’s Church was built near Backlanding. It appeared on early maps of colonial North Carolina long before the Revolutionary War. In 1874 one acre of land was acquired on old South St. in Columbia where approximately eighteen communicants were “making a strenuous effort to carry on.” In 1905 St. Andrews was made an organized mission. The South Street property was sold on July 27, 1905 and the present church of St. Andrew’s on Road Street was built around 1909. Through the years, the church has been served by missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, rectors from other parishes, rectors from Coalition 16 of which St. Andrew’s was a member, supply priests and faithful lay ministers; however, there has never been a resident Episcopal priest in Tyrrell County until the present day. The Rev. William Smyth became the priest-in-charge in 2011. Today the vibrant congregation is building a Parish House both to celebrate its life together and to reach out to the community.