THE FIRE OF 1861: This conflagration is given prominence because of the great number of important buildings that were destroyed. The Charleston City Year Book of 1880 says that this fire began in a large sash and blind factory near the foot of Hasell Street on the night of Wednesday, December 11, 1861. A gale blowing from the north-northeast the flames swept through the town to the then west end of Tradd Street, laying waste an area of 540 acres and inflicting property damage of about seven millions of dollars. The fire was not due to the war. Among the buildings burned were the Cumberland Methodist Church, the Circular Church, the building of the South Carolina Institute, the Charleston Theater, the building of the St. Andrew’s Society, the Catholic Cathedral of St. Finbar and St. John, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, the Quaker Meeting House.
CHARLESTON’S BEACHES: Charleston is fortunate in possession of resort beaches which are easily accessible. Sullivan’s Island, on which is old Fort Moultrie, has been a popular summering place for many many years. Beyond it is the Isle of Palms, with its nine-mile strand. A notable pavilion has been a feature since 1899. Both of these islands are reached by way of the Cooper River Bridge and the bridge over Cove Inlet, between Mount Pleasant and Sullivan’s Island. The latter and the Isle of Palms are separated by Breach Inlet, over which is a modern bridge. By way of the Ashley River Bridge, thence through James Island, is the route to Folly Beach, with its seven-mile strand. An entertainment pier was built in time for the season of 1931; this is over the water at high tide. To the east of Folly Beach is Morris Island where stands the Charleston Light, the first and only Colonial light south of the Delaware capes. To the west is the desirable Island of Kiawah, property of the late Major Arnoldus Vanderhorst.
PETIGRU’S GRAVE, in St. Michael’s Yard: When Woodrow Wilson was attending the peace conference at Paris, a message came to Charleston that the president wished the inscription from the grave of James Louis Petigru in St. Michael’s Churchyard. It was furnished at once by Joseph M. Poulnot, then postmaster at Charleston. Mr. Petigru was an eminent South Carolinian. Notwithstanding that he opposed Nullification and Secession he held the high opinion of the community, and commanded its respect. Mr. Petigru, through his mother, was a grandson of the French Protestant Pastor Jean Louis Gibert, who led French settlers to the Abbeville section in the late 1760’s. The inscription on his tomb which is widely quoted says in part:
Future Times will hardly know
How great a Life
This simple stone commemorates;
The tradition of his Eloquence,
His Wisdom, and his Wit may fade:
But he lived for Ends more durable than Fame.
His learning illuminated the principles of Law:
His Eloquence was the Protection of the Poor and Wronged.
In the Admiration of his Peers:
In the Respect of his People:
In the Affection of his Family,
His was the highest Place:
The just Mead
of his Kindness and Forbearance,
His Dignity and his Simplicity,
His brilliant Genius and his unwearied Industry.
Unawed by Opinion,
Unseduced by Flattery:
Undismayed by Disaster,
He confronted Life with antique Courage:
And Death with Christian Hope:
In the great Civil War
He withstood his People for his Country:
But his People did Homage to the Man
Who held his Conscience higher than their Praise:
And his Country
Heaped her Honours upon the Grave of the Patriot,
To whom, living,
His own righteous self-Respect sufficed
Alike for Motive and Reward.
Mr. Petigru’s funeral took place March 10, 1863. To a Unionist who went with his people into Secession, highest honors were paid even while the forces of the United States were battering away at Charleston!
A HOUSE OF TRAGEDIES, the Hanging of Lavinia Fisher: In 1820 lawlessness on the “Neck” northward of Charleston was regnant. “Gangs of white desperadoes occupied certain houses and infested the roads leading to the city. To such an extent did these outlaws carry their excesses that wagoners and others coming to the City were under the necessity of carrying rifles in their hands for their defense. Travelers passed these houses with fear and trembling. More dreaded than others of these haunts was that known as the Six-Mile (?) house, occupied by John Fisher and Lavinia, his wife,” says King’s Newspaper Press of Charleston. Fisher and his wife were taken into custody and high crimes and misdemeanors charged against them. In the cellar of their roadhouse were found the bones of guests they had murdered. Their motive was robbery. Their house was on the Meeting Street Road, a section of the Old State Road, Charleston to Columbia. The Fishers were tried and convicted in Charleston. According to King they were hanged February 18, 1820, “at 2 o’clock, just within the lines, on a hill east of the Meeting Street Road, about eight hundred yards north of the street known as Line Street continued.” Mrs. Fisher was unnerved and “called upon the immense throng assembled to rescue her and implored pity with outstretched and trembling hands.” King is mistaken about the Six-Mile house, as authorities say that it was the Four-Mile house, the site of which is readily located; it is four miles from the Charleston Court House on the Meeting Street Road, about a mile north of Magnolia Crossing, and visible from the King Street Extension which is the Charleston approach by the Coastal Highway, United States 52.
Monument to Defenders of Fort Moultrie on The Battery
Colonial Powder Magazine, 23 Cumberland Street
WESTMINSTER CHURCH, Rutledge Avenue and Maverick Street: This Presbyterian congregation sold its building at 273-75 Meeting Street to the Trinity Methodist Episcopal congregation and erected a new church about two miles from the other site. The congregation derives from St. Andrew’s, or the Third Presbyterian, Church in Archdale Street, built in 1814. It was due to a separation from the First (Scotch) Presbyterian Church. The Reverend Dr. Buchan was the first pastor. About 1850 this church was razed, the congregation building anew on the west side of Meeting Street; the new church was called the Central and for more than twenty years was under the pastoral charge of the Reverend W. C. Dana. With it merged the Glebe Street Presbyterian Church of which the eminent Reverend Dr. J. L. Girardeau was pastor. The Central Church became Westminster. The old yard in Archdale Street is not now used for burials.
OLD THEATER SITE, Joseph Jefferson, Manager: In 1793 the Charleston Theater was built in a corner of Savage’s Green and about the same time New Street was built. Years afterward Joseph Jefferson, famous and beloved American comedian, managed a theater in Charleston. He told the writer that it was at New and Broad Streets, but authorities say that Mr. Jefferson was mistaken; that he meant another old theater at Friend (Legare) and Broad Streets. The late Reverend Dr. Robert Wilson told the writer that this was another mistake, as Mr. Jefferson managed Placides Theater in Queen Street! Mr. Jefferson’s mother was born in Charleston.
SUGAR FACTORY SITE, Later a Home of Correction: According to The Courier (May 16, 1868) at the west end of Broad Street was Savage’s Green on which, before the Revolution was built a manufactory for loaf sugar. For this reason it was known as the Sugar House. It became a Work House or House of Correction. “The lot, together with the building,” says The Courier, “was afterwards owned by Dr. Le Seignieur, who, in 1807, contemplated the establishment of a cotton manufactory. The plan was abandoned in consequence of the machinery having been lost on its passage from Europe.”
SECOND (FLINN’S) CHURCH, Meeting and Charlotte Streets: Presbyterians in Charleston growing in number it was decided that another church was necessary and thus the Second Church was organized in 1811. Its site is the highest place within the City of Charleston, about fifteen feet above mean low water. The tower behind the portico was intended to be surmounted by a steeple, but this addition has yet to be erected. From its first pastor, the church is often alluded to as Flinn’s.
ST. MATTHEW’S CHURCH, 403 King Street: At Christmas, 1867, the corner stone for St. Matthew’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church was laid. The church building was dedicated in March, 1872. The tallest spire in Charleston surmounts the church. An impressive representation of the Crucifixion is in a stained glass window.
CITADEL SQUARE CHURCH, 328 Meeting Street: Offspring of the old First Baptist Church in lower Church Street, the Citadel Square was founded in 1854 and the building dedicated in November, 1856. Members of the Wentworth Street Baptist Church joined with the Citadel Square. In the cyclone of 1885 the steeple fell in such manner as to carry away the front walls of the residence at the northeast corner of Meeting and Henrietta Streets. Several years ago the church building was renovated, the already large auditorium made larger. The Citadel Square, deriving its name from the nickname of the Marion Square which it faces, has one of the largest Baptist congregations in the South.
CHURCH OF THE HOLY COMMUNION, Cannon Street and Ashley Avenue: From this church went its rector, the Reverend H. J. Mikell to become Episcopal Bishop of Atlanta. The late Anthony Toomer Porter, D.D., was its rector for years and this gave the name of Holy Communion Church Institute to what is now the Porter Military Academy. St. Timothy’s Chapel at Porter is more or less attached to the Holy Communion.
ST. ANDREWS LUTHERAN, 37 Wentworth Street: This church building was severely damaged by Union shells in the War for Southern Independence. It was then a Methodist property. After Appomattox this congregation joined with a Morris Street Lutheran congregation under the pastorate of the Reverend Dr. W. S. Bowman. It has had a succession of able, eloquent Lutheran ministers, including the Reverend James A. B. Scherer and the Reverend M. G. G. Scherer.
ST. JOHANNES CHURCH, 48 Harrell Street: This building was first used by the St. Matthew’s congregation which later built on King Street opposite Marion Square. As St. Johannes, it was organized in 1878, though the earlier Lutheran congregation was there in 1841.
SHAW MEMORIAL SCHOOL, 22 Mary Street: Charleston’s tolerance as a community may be illustrated in the Shaw school for negroes. Since 1874 this institution has been in the Charleston city school system. It is a memorial to Colonel Robert G. Shaw, Union officer, who fell at the head of his regiment of negro troops in the assault on Battery Wagner, Morris Island, in the War for Southern Independence. His family provided the “spacious school house” for negroes, the land having been bought in 1868. The Shaw Monument Fund was supported entirely from the North until 1874.
Strawberry, Chapel of Ease to Biggin
St. James Church, Goose Creek
POINSETTIA PULCHERRIMA, Named for Joel Roberts Poinsett: The Poinsettia is commonly known as Charleston’s flower. It was brought from Mexico by Joel Roberts Poinsett, about 1828. “There is some difference of opinion,” says Dr. Gabriel Manigault, “as to whether Mr. Poinsett discovered it himself or simply introduced it to this country.” After his retirement from a busy and distinguished public service, Mr. Poinsett’s home “had always been in the City of Charleston.” His residence was “situated upon what is now Rutledge Avenue, on the east side, a few squares above Calhoun Street. The house ... was recessed some distance from the street, and stood in the midst of a grove of live oaks; it was generally known as Poinsett’s Grove.” Mr. Poinsett was representative in congress, minister to Mexico in an eventful period, Secretary of War under President Van Buren, a rice planter who contributed much to the improvement of the grain.
CHARLESTON’S HOTELS: The Francis Marion, at King and Calhoun Streets, in the heart of the retail shopping district, facing Marion Square, was opened in the spring of 1924. Its building was a community enterprise.
The Fort Sumter, facing the Battery, at the foot of King Street, on the Ashley River, was opened in 1924. It maintains a dock for yachts. It is in the exclusive residential section.
The St. John Hotel, built by Otis Mills, a caravansary with a long and a distinguished record, is at the southwest corner of Meeting and Queen Streets. President Theodore Roosevelt stayed here in the winter of 1902.
The Timrod Hotel, opposite Washington Square, is a comfortable and convenient place in the building formerly occupied by the Commercial Club.
The Charleston Hotel, Meeting between Hayne and Pinckney, has housed many notable guests, including the Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria.
The Argyle, northwest corner of Meeting and Hasell Streets, was renovated and newly outfitted some years ago. It was formerly the St. Charles.
Villa Margharita, South Battery and Church Street, was the former home of Andrew Simonds, banker.
CABBAGE ROW, Supposed Home of “Porgy”: Everybody coming to Charleston inquires about “Porgy,” the deformed negro of whom DuBose Heyward wrote a best seller, which was translated into a successful play. Cabbage Row, on Church Street, near Tradd, west side, is the supposed Catfish Row. Cabbage Row has been renovated and restored. “Porgy” was a well-known Charleston character whose home was in the former Village of Cool Blow, on upper Meeting Street. His last days were tragedy. It would spoil a reading of “Porgy” to discuss him at length.
WASHINGTON RACE COURSE, August Belmont Moved the Pillars: Memories of the old Washington race course survive, but the Jockey Club has been out of existence these forty years. Decades have elapsed since races were run on the course. The track was on property entered from Rutledge Avenue near present-day Hampton Park. In 1901 the old pillars in the ornate gateway were purchased by August Belmont and reërected at his Belmont Park, near New York City. There are now no traces of the famous race course to which in the season the South Carolina aristocracy went in force and regalia. Notable races were run.
OLD ’BORO BOUNDARIES: Should a visitor stay in Charleston long enough to ramble out of the beaten paths, these boundaries to old divisions may be of interest:
Savage’s Green, west of Logan and Broad Streets.
Harleston’s, bounded by Beaufain, Coming and Calhoun Streets, and the Ashley River.
Mazyck’s Lands, bounded by Archdale, Beaufain, Broad, Smith and Trapman Streets.
Cannonboro’, bounded by Smith, Bull, and Spring Streets and Ashley Avenue.
Gadsden’s Green, bounded by Cannon and President Streets, the old public cemetery (the Stadium) and the Ashley River.
Gadsden’s Square, bounded by Congress, Payne, Mount and Line Streets.
Elliottboro’, within Spring, Line, and Coming Streets and Rutledge Avenue.
Radcliffeboro’, within Radcliffe, Vanderhorst, Smith and King Streets.
Wraggboro’, eastern part of the Wragg Lands about the old Northeastern Railroad station.
Mazyckboro’, bounded by Chapel, Elizabeth and Calhoun Streets and the Cooper River, running into Wraggboro’ as a wedge.
Ansonboro’, south of Wraggboro’, bounded by Calhoun Street, a line between Society and Wentworth, King Street on the west, Anson Street on the east.
Glebe Lands, extending from Beaufain to George Streets, between St. Philip and Coming Streets.
Hewatt Square, bounded by Friend (now Legare), Broad Mazyck (now upper Logan), and Queen Streets.
Archdale Square, bounded by Meeting, Broad, King, and Queen Streets.
Schenking’s Square, north of Queen, between King and Meeting Streets, half-way to Horlbeck Alley.
“City Mudpond,” East Battery, South Battery, Church, half-way to Atlantic Street (nowadays a most fashionable residential area).
Village of Hampstead, between South, Blake, Meeting and Bay Streets; owned by Henry Laurens and the Bampfield family.
Village of New Market, north of Hampstead.
“There are other smaller divisions of land which are too numerous to mention here.”—Wilmot G. de Saussure.
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