History Lover's Guide to Charleston, A

By Christopher Byrd Downey

Founded in 1670, Charleston is among the oldest cities in the nation and site of some of the most pivotal events in American history. Explore the city and discover the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon where South Carolina ratified the U.S. Constitution in 1788. Visit beautiful Rainbow Row and learn the true history of this most iconic of Charleston sites. Tour the city's oldest church edifice at St. Michael's Church, which first opened for services in 1761. Join historian and author Christopher Byrd Downey for a guided tour of nearly one hundred historic Charleston sites tailor-made for the history lover.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: May 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781439674833

Christopher Byrd Downey

Christopher Byrd Downey (Captain Byrd) received his degree in history from Virginia Tech in 1995 and shortly after graduating began a career in the maritime industry. He has previously authored three books related to the history of Charleston: Stede Bonnet: Charleston's Gentleman Pirate, Charleston and the Golden Age of Piracy and Edgar Allan Poe's Charleston. A native of Virginia, he now lives with his family in Charleston. Visit him at captainbyrds.com.

Book preview

1

MUSEUMS AND HISTORIC ATTRACTIONS OF DOWNTOWN CHARLESTON

1. Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum

2. Philip Simmons Museum Home and Workshop

3. Aiken-Rhett House

4. The Charleston Museum

5. Joseph Manigault House

6. Best Friend Train Museum

7. Mace Brown Natural History Museum

8. The Museum at Market Hall

9. The Powder Magazine

10. Gibbes Museum of Art

11. Museum of Postal History

12. South Carolina Historical Society Museum

13. Dock Street Theatre

14. The Old Slave Mart Museum

15. The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon

16. Heyward-Washington House

17. Nathaniel Russell House

18. Williams Mansion

19. Edmondston-Alston House

1. KARPELES MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY MUSEUM

68 Spring Street karpeles.com

Charleston is lucky to boast one of only fourteen Karpeles Manuscript Library Museums in the country, which are dedicated to sharing with visitors the world’s largest private collection of manuscripts and documents. Belonging to real estate magnates David and Marsha Karpeles and founded in 1983, the library’s archives contain over one million manuscripts and documents relating to literature, science, religion, politics and arts. Exhibits with a specific theme are rotated quarterly through each museum and offer access to manuscripts and documents related to some of history’s greatest and most inspiring events, formed in the actual handwriting of some of history’s most famous figures. The exhibits allow visitors get a personal and tactile connection to many of these famous historical figures, whose true characters and personalities have all too often been mythologized, exaggerated or even lost over time.

Each of the fourteen Karpeles museums is housed in a historic structure, and the museum in Charleston is no exception. The history of the site where the museum stands today dates to the late eighteenth century when a group of Methodist dissenters, led by William Hammet, decided to form their own congregation and built a church named St. James on King Street, near Line Street. By the 1850s, the congregation had grown so large that the decision was made to sell the property on King Street and build a new church at 68 Spring Street, which was to be named the Spring Street Methodist Church. Construction began in 1856 but was still not complete when the Civil War began five years later. In 1862, the Confederate authorities seized the building to use as a medical storehouse. Construction was completed after the war, and regular services by the founding congregation began in 1868. The church was badly damaged by the Earthquake of 1886, and services ceased for nearly two years until repairs could be made. In 1946, the congregation restored the original name of St. James to the church. The building was acquired by David Karpeles in 1990 and, following renovations, was opened as a museum the following year.

2. PHILIP SIMMONS MUSEUM HOME AND WORKSHOP

Philip Simmons Foundation Inc. 30 ½ Blake Street philipsimmons.us

There are few more enduring and iconic symbols of Charleston’s history and charm than the beautiful, ornate ironwork that graces the city’s landscape, and the master of this art is the late Philip Simmons. Born on Daniel Island on June 9, 1912, Philip Simmons moved to the east side of downtown Charleston at eight years old to attend school as part of the first class of Buist Elementary. Intrigued by the sights and sounds coming from the blacksmith shops that he passed while walking to and from school, Simmons asked the proprietor of one of these shops, Peter Simmons (no relation), for a job. Peter Simmons told the young boy to return when he turned thirteen. The day after his thirteenth birthday, Philip Simmons started an apprenticeship that sparked a blacksmithing career that would span nearly eight decades.

Simmons transitioned into the specialized field of ornamental ironwork in 1938, and he made the first of his signature and celebrated iron gates in 1948. Today, approximately one thousand ironworks either designed, fabricated or supervised by Simmons can be found decorating homes and gardens throughout the country. In 1982, Simmons was honored with the National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts—the highest honor the United States can bestow on a traditional artist.

One of Philip Simmons’s most beautiful designs, the Heart Gate, welcomes visitors to the gardens of St. John’s Reformed Episcopal Church on Anson Street. Photo by author.

With nearly every neighborhood in Charleston boasting examples of Simmons’s ornamental wrought-iron gates, fences, balconies and window grills, the city is itself, in many ways, a museum of works by Philip Simmons. But if you want to learn more about Simmons and the art of blacksmithing, then a stop at the Philip Simmons Home and Workshop is a must. The museum—managed and operated by the Philip Simmons Foundation Inc.—is housed in Simmons’s former cottage and explores and interprets his life and works through personal effects, examples of his ironwork, detailed cataloguing and mapping of existing works, as well as a gift shop with ornaments and jewelry inspired by Simmons’s designs. Simmons’s workshop, which is adjacent to the museum, still serves as a functioning blacksmith shop and offers ironwork demonstrations for visitors.

3. AIKEN-RHETT HOUSE

48 Elizabeth Street historiccharleston.org/aiken-rhett

One of the best-preserved early nineteenth-century townhouse complexes in the nation, the Aiken-Rhett House offers a unique glimpse into urban life in antebellum Charleston for the wealthy and powerful as well as the enslaved men and women forced to cater to the home’s owners and their way of life.

Charleston merchant John Robinson built the house in 1820, but only five years later he was forced to liquidate his assets and sell the house after losing five of his merchant ships. The house was purchased in 1825 for use as a rental property by William Aiken Sr., president of the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company. Aiken unfortunately died in a carriage accident in 1831, and his vast holdings, including the house at 48 Elizabeth Street, were subsequently inherited by his wife, Henrietta Wyatt Aiken, and the couple’s only son, William Aiken Jr. In 1833, after an extensive European honeymoon with his new bride Harriet Lowndes, William Aiken Jr. decided to make the house the newlyweds’ primary residence, and the couple began extensive renovations and expansion of the property, making it one of the Charleston’s most impressive residences of the period.

William Aiken Jr., who served as governor of South Carolina (1844–46) and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1851–57), was among the wealthiest men in South Carolina and one of the largest slaveholders in U.S. history with over eight hundred enslaved laborers, most of whom worked on his rice plantation, Jehossee, located on an island south of Charleston. Although he was a slave owner and did give financial support to the Confederacy during the Civil War, Aiken was a Unionist and ardently opposed both nullification and secession. In November 1863, General P.G.T. Beauregard moved his headquarters into the house after Union shelling forced him to flee the lower peninsula. After the war, Aiken was voted to the U.S. House of Representatives again in 1866 but was denied his seat by its northern members. He died at his summer home in Flat Rock, North Carolina, in 1887. Harriet continued to live in the Charleston house until her death in 1892. The house remained in the Aiken family for a total of 142 years until it was sold to the Charleston Museum and opened as a museum house in 1975.

The outbuildings of the Aiken-Rhett House include slave quarters considered to be the best preserved in the Southeast. Photo by author.

In 1995, the Historic Charleston Foundation assumed ownership of the house and adopted a preserve as found approach, meaning that the structure and contents—including its furniture, architecture and finishes—are left in an as found state. This essentially offers visitors an opportunity to view the property in a state that has been untouched since the 1850s. The only restored room in the house is its art gallery, which was constructed in 1858 by Governor Aiken’s cousin Joseph Daniel Aiken to exhibit the family’s impressive collection of art begun during the Aikens’ 1833 European honeymoon. Today, many of these original pieces of art are still on display in the restored art gallery.

Unique to the site are the home’s original outbuildings, including a kitchen, slave quarters, carriage block and back lot. Considered the best preserved in the Southeast, the slave quarters, which maintain their original paint, floor and fixtures, are located above the kitchen and open to visitors.

Visitors can enjoy a self-guided audio tour through a free mobile app, but there are also incredibly knowledgeable and helpful guides in the house available to answer questions and share the home’s history.

4. THE CHARLESTON MUSEUM

360 Meeting Street charlestonmuseum.org

Established in 1773, the Charleston Museum is commonly regarded as America’s First Museum. Inspired by the creation of the British Museum in 1759, the Charleston Museum was established on the eve of the American Revolution by the Charleston Library Society, and its early history is associated with some of South Carolina’s most distinguished political and scientific figures, including Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Thomas Heyward Jr., Reverend John Bachman and John J. Audubon. Much of the museum’s original collection was destroyed by fire in 1778, and operations were suspended during the American Revolution. Collecting resumed after the war, and the museum first opened to the public in 1824. The museum’s collection of ethnological and zoological specimens prompted Harvard scientist Louis Agassiz to declare it to be among the finest in America in 1852. The museum once again suspended operations during the Civil War but reopened shortly afterward. In 1920, Laura Bragg became the first woman in America to direct a publicly funded museum when the Charleston Museum hired her as its director. Starting in 1907, the museum was housed in the former Thomson Auditorium, which was built in 1899 to host a Confederate veterans’ reunion. The museum moved into its current building in 1980, and the following year, the Thomson Auditorium was destroyed by fire. Only the building’s portico steps and four grand columns survived the blaze, and they can still be seen standing today in Cannon Park on Rutledge Avenue.

Today, the museum’s collection represents the most comprehensive assemblage of South Carolina materials in the nation, with modern collecting emphases including natural science, ornithology, historical material culture and both documentary and photographic resources. The museum’s permanent exhibits offer visitors a great introduction to the history of Charleston and the surrounding Lowcountry. Permanent exhibits include The Armory with historic weaponry dating from 1750 to the twentieth century; Becoming Americans: Charleston in the Revolution, which explores Charleston’s role in the American Revolution; City Under Siege: Charleston in the Civil War, which includes tables and chairs used at the drafting of the Ordinance of Secession and artillery shells fired into and around Charleston during the war; and Kidstory, a fun, hands-on exhibit for children to learn about Charleston’s history.

The Charleston Museum also operates two house museums—the Joseph Manigault House located across the street from the museum at 350 Meeting Street and the Heyward-Washington House located at 87 Church Street. Combination tickets for the Charleston Museum and the two museum houses are available for purchase.

5. JOSEPH MANIGAULT HOUSE

350 Meeting Street charlestonmuseum.org/historic-houses/joseph-manigault-house

Descended from French Huguenots, Joseph Manigault was the fourth generation of his family to live in South Carolina. The Manigaults first arrived in Charleston and settled along the Santee River in the late 1600s after fleeing France when the 1598 Edict of Nantes, which had provided toleration and protection for French Protestants, was revoked by King Louis XIV in 1685. The Manigault family prospered in the Lowcountry, first as merchants and then as rice planters, quickly becoming one of South Carolina’s leading families. By the time of Joseph Manigault’s birth in 1763, his father, Peter Manigault, was considered the richest man in British North America, owning six large plantations consisting of more than forty thousand acres and an estimated six hundred slaves. Peter died when Joseph was only ten years old, and he and his brother, Gabriel, were raised by their paternal grandfather. Joseph inherited several plantations and over two hundred slaves from his grandfather in 1788 and then furthered his wealth and social standing by marrying Maria Henrietta Middleton, whose father, Arthur Middleton, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Henrietta sadly died in 1791 while still a teenager, and Joseph soon married Charlotte Drayton, with whom he had eight children. In addition to his success as a rice planter, Joseph sat in the state legislature and was a trustee of the College of Charleston.

In 1803, Joseph had the townhome at 350 Meeting Street built on property inherited from his uncle Joseph Wragg. The neighborhood surrounding the Joseph Manigault House still bears the Wragg name—Wraggborough. Joseph’s nine-thousand-square-foot Federal-style townhome was designed by his brother, Gabriel, who was a wealthy rice planter like Joseph but had also studied architecture in Europe and was considered a gentleman architect, credited with designing Charleston’s City Hall and South Carolina Society Hall. The Joseph Manigault house is built of Charleston-made brick with a slate hipped roof and stands three stories tall over a high basement. The house has the character of an urban villa with an exterior distinguished not by ornament but by full-height curvilinear bays on the north and east elevations and a semicircular double-tiered piazza on the west. The interior incorporates a sequence of interconnected entertaining rooms embellished with Adamesque detailing. The formal entrance hall, dining room and drawing room feature elaborately carved mantels and moldings, and an enormous plaster medallion decorates the ceiling above the cantilever flying staircase, which was the first built in Charleston. In the home’s garden, the focal point is a unique gatehouse structure known as the Gate Temple, which were popular in English and French gardens during the period.

The Joseph Manigault House, built in 1803. Photo by author.

Joseph Manigault died in 1843, and his wife, Charlotte, lived in the home until 1852. The house served primarily as a tenement for the next half century, but by the 1920s it was threatened with demolition. Nell McColl Pringle and her husband, Ernest, with the assistance of Susan Pringle Frost, purchased the house in 1922, rescuing it from destruction and sparking the preservation movement in Charleston. In 1933, the house was acquired by the Charleston Museum, after which some creative measures had to be taken to pay the bills for maintaining and conserving the site, including an Esso service station being built on the property in the 1930s. During World War II, the house was leased by the USO and became the scene for countless dances and parties for servicemen and women in the city.

Today, the Joseph Manigault House is still owned and operated by the Charleston Museum, which is located directly across John Street from the house. The house is full of American, English and French furnishings from the period, and many of the rooms have been restored to their original color schemes. Visitors can explore the gardens and take guided tours of the first and second floors of the home.

6. BEST FRIEND TRAIN MUSEUM

36 John Street bestfriendofcharleston.org

In the 1820s, Charleston fell into a deep economic depression as more and more people began to move westward and settle in the interior of the state. A group of Charleston merchants lobbied the state legislature in 1827 to charter the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company to explore the feasibility of creating a railroad system to connect Charleston with the new burgeoning inland markets. The following year, at a cost of nearly $900,000, the construction of 136 miles of track stretching from Charleston to Hamburg (near Aiken) began. A new steam engine, named Best Friend of Charleston by the eager Charleston merchants, arrived from New York by ship in 1830. On December 25 of that same year, as bands played and a crowd cheered,