St. Matthews, SC

St. Matthews is the Calhoun County seat, centered in the South Carolina Midlands between Orangeburg and Camden. The town had 1,841 residents in the 2020 census, down from 2,021 a decade earlier, but the county-seat role keeps it busy with the practical work of courts, schools, and county offices. U.S. 601 runs through town, linking it to Orangeburg to the southwest and Camden to the northeast. Its earlier name was Amelia, a township established in the 1730s under Governor Robert Johnson, which gives the place a colonial beginning beneath its current town grid.

The Calhoun County Museum and Cultural Center on Butler Street is the spot to understand the area’s longer memory. Founded in 1959, it holds local archives, Native American artifacts, period rooms, costumes, and a farm room, with tours and genealogy help folded into the mix. April brings the Purple Martin Festival downtown, when food, music, cars, and the town’s usual county-seat routines share the calendar. St. Matthews is not trying to be a big city; its character comes from being the place where Calhoun County handles business, keeps its collection of stories, and gathers for a festival when spring arrives.