Part 2

POWDER MAGAZINE, _23 Cumberland Street_: In the early days of Charles Town this storehouse for ammunition was built of brick covered with "tabby." It is known to have been in use in 1703. It continued as a storing place of gunpowder years after the town limits had been pushed northward of Cumberland Street. When the British were besieging Charlestown in 1780, a shell exploded near the magazine and attention was thus directed to its danger. It was abandoned as a magazine. Nowadays this ancient building is the property of the Charleston Society of the Colonial Dames of America. In it are many interesting and valuable relics. How this magazine escaped through the years is one of the mysteries.

NICHOLAS TROTT'S HOUSE, _25 Cumberland Street_: Next door to the Powder Magazine is Charleston's first brick house, standing in its old appearance until a few years ago when it was done over for business offices. It was the home of Nicholas Trott, one of the chief men of Charles Town. It is a large two-story building, its back to St. Philip's western graveyard. Trott, born in England in 1663, came to Charles Town from the Bahamas about 1690. He was Attorney General in 1698, Speaker of the Assembly in 1700, Councillor in 1703 and the Chief Judge after that. With the overthrow of the government of the Proprietors, Trott's star waned. He revised and published _Laws of South Carolina_ (two volumes, 1736) and _Laws Relating to the Church and the Clergy_ (1721). He died in Charlestown in 1740. Dr. Shecut says that the Trott House was standing in 1719. "The great ability and legal attainments of Chief Justice Trott, who acted as Chief Justice in all for some fifteen or sixteen years," Henry A. M. Smith wrote, drew all the business and litigation to it; his became practically the only court in the Province. The Proprietors sustained Trott when the people complained "and the response on the part of the people was to overthrow the Proprietary Government," Judge Smith is quoted.

WILLIAM RHETT'S HOUSE, _58 Hasell Street_: Wade Hampton, South Carolina hero of the Reconstruction period after the War for Southern Independence, acclaimed as the savior of his state, was born in the house wherein lived William Rhett, captor of Stede Bonnet, notorious pirate, and his fellows, who were hanged, in 1718. William Rhett was a great man in the early Carolina and Wade Hampton in the later. Rhett's large square house was in excellent condition in 1722, says Joseph Johnson, M.D., in his _Traditions of the Revolution_. It is in good condition in this year, 1939. It is entered through a broad piazza on the west side and contains four large rooms on each floor. Colonel Rhett is remembered chiefly for his capture of the pirates, but other marks in his record are lustrous. He commanded the little fleet that in 1706 put down the harbor against a hostile French fleet under Le Feboure: the Frenchman weighed his anchors and went to sea without offering a single shot. A few days later Rhett's flotilla, a short distance up the coast, captured a French vessel; among his prisoners was the chief land officer, Arbouset. Rhett was born in London, September 4, 1666, and came to Charles Town in November of 1694; he died here in June of 1722. On his tomb in St. Philip's western graveyard, it is chiseled that "he was a person that on all occasions promoted the public good of this colony and several times generously and successfully ventured in defense of the same.... A kind husband, a tender father, a faithful friend, a charitable neighbour."

QUAKER GRAVEYARD, _138 King Street_: Graves among the oldest in Carolina are in the yard of the old Quaker Meeting House property. The first Quaker house of worship was built on this site in 1694. John Archdale, Quaker, Proprietor and Governor, came to Charles Town in 1695, and attended services with his fellow Friends. The property is a parcel of the old Archdale Square, nowadays bounded by King, Queen, Meeting and Broad Streets. It was just outside the town in those early years. This building was blown up in July, 1837, to stop a fire. The rebuilt Meeting House was destroyed in the conflagration of 1861. Quakers came to Charles Town while it was across the Ashley River. A letter from Shaftesbury, dated June 9, 1675, said: "There come now in my dogger Jacob Waite and two or three other familys of those who are called Quakers. These are but the Harbingers of a greater number that intend to follow. 'Tis theire purpose to take up a whole colony for themselves and theire Friends here, they promised me to build a Town of 30 Houses. I have writ to the Gov'r and Council about them and directed them to set them out 12,000 acres." The Society of Friends owns this property, but there is now no meeting house in Charleston. The name of Governor Archdale is preserved in the street of that name, on which are the Unitarian and St. John's Lutheran Churches.

THE GATEWAY WALK, _from Church to Archdale_: No visitors to Charleston should forego the pleasure of using the Gateway Walk of the Garden Club. A bronze plate on a gate at the Charleston Library says:

_Through hand-wrought gates alluring paths Lead on to pleasant places, Where ghosts of long-forgotten things Have left elusive traces._

This verse speaks eloquently for it. East to west, the walk is through St. Philip's graveyard, through the yard of the Circular Congregational Church, thence across Meeting Street, through the yard of the Gibbes Memorial Art Gallery, through that of the Charleston Library Society, across King Street, through the yards of the Unitarian and St. John's Lutheran Churches. There are two graceful wrought-iron gateways between the Gallery and the Library which formerly had place at the home of William Aiken, King and Ann Streets, used nowadays by the Southern Railway System for offices. Mr. Aiken was president of the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company from 1828 to 1831. Aiken, near Augusta, popular winter resort, was named in his honor. The railroad company a hundred years ago built the world's longest steam railroad. In the large yard behind the Gibbes Gallery is an attractive pool with growing water plants. To describe the Gateway Walk at length would operate to rob a visitor of the tranquil pleasure of moving through it leisurely. In the yards of St. Philip's and the Circular Church are graves of early citizens of Charles Town. It is enough to say that the Garden Club has achieved a unique and worthwhile project. Elsewhere in this book is found information of the six properties traversed by the walk.

ST. ANDREWS HALL SITE, _118 Broad Street_: The St. Andrew's Society of Charleston was organized by Scots in 1729. It is Charleston's oldest benevolent society, active and flourishing into this season. Its hall was built in 1814 and here the Marquis de Lafayette was entertained in March, 1825. The distinguished Frenchman was the guest of the city and was showered with attentions. Here he met his friend, Colonel Francis K. Huger, who some years before had engaged in the frustrated scheme of aiding Lafayette to escape from an Austrian prison. Here on Tuesday, March 15, 1825, he "received the salutations of the reverend clergy, the officers of the militia, judges and gentlemen of the Bar, and many citizens, after which he visited Generals Charles C. and Thomas Pinckney, Mrs. Shaw, the daughter of General Greene, and Mrs. Washington, relict of the late General William Washington." In this hall was passed the _Ordinance of Secession_ December 20, 1860 (it was signed in the Institute Hall, however). It was among the many buildings razed by the flames in 1861. The St. Andrew's Society is housed in these seasons with the South Carolina Society, certain of the chairs and tables used in the Secession convention being preserved. In the years before the War for Southern Independence St. Andrew's Hall was the scene of many brilliant social entertainments, including balls of that eminent Charleston order, the Saint Cecilia Society, which had its beginning as a musical society, presenting concerts.

JOHN STUART'S HOUSE, _104 Tradd Street_: John Stuart, born in England in 1700, came through Charlestown with General James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, in 1733. Thirty years later he was appointed the British general agent for Indian affairs in the South. Captured by the Cherokees, he was saved by Attakullakulla (the Little Carpenter). With the breaking of the Revolution he engaged to incite Cherokees, Chickasaws and Creeks (Muscogees) to war against the whites. The Indian outbreak was to coincide with Sir Peter Parker's attack on Charlestown in the spring of 1776. It was foiled by alert Kentucky settlers. His plot being exposed Colonel Stuart fled to Florida, thence to England where he died in 1779. His property was confiscated by the independent government. To escape the British, it is related that General Francis Marion leaped from a window. His coattails caught and his liberty was in peril. (That's the story, but the house from which Marion fled is at the northeast corner of Legare and Tradd.) Certain of the interior of this house has been reset up in Minneapolis which has broadcast its pride in the accession.

SITE OF FORT JOHNSON, _James Island_: The first fortification erected for the defense of old Charles Town was at the northeast end of James Island, within the present-day Quarantine reservation. It was devised to meet the threatened invasion by the French under Le Feboure and was named Fort Johnson in honor of the then Governor, Sir Nathaniel Johnson. In 1759 a second fort of tabby (or tapia) was built on the site and this was the Fort Johnson of the Revolution--"in plan triangular, with salients bastioned and priestcapped, the gorge closed, the gate protected by an earthwork, a defensible sea wall of tapia extended the fortification to the west and southwest." In 1765 stamped paper was transferred from a British sloop-of-war and stored in Fort Johnson while in Charlestown excitement prevailed, resulting in seizure of the stamped paper by three companies of volunteers under Captains Marion, Pinckney and Elliott. The British garrison was placed under guard and preparations made to resist any attack from the sloop-of-war. At this time was displayed the first form of the South Carolina State flag--a blue field with three white crescents. The naval commander agreed to carry the stamped paper from Charlestown and the incident passed off without clash at arms. This was ten years before the Battle of Concord. In 1775, the spirit of liberty gaining strength, Fort Johnson was again seized by order of the Council of Safety, as a precaution against the last of the Royal Governors, Lord William Campbell, British troops being expected. In November of this year (1775) three shots were fired from Fort Johnson on the British sloops-of-war _Tamar_ and _Cherokee_, which were engaged in blocking Hog Island Channel. June 28, 1776, Fort Johnson was commanded by Colonel Christopher Gadsden, but had no opportunity of engaging Sir Peter Parker's fleet, which was repulsed by soldiers under Colonel William Moultrie at Fort Sullivan, known afterward and now as Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island. In 1780 Sir Henry Clinton reported Fort Johnson "destroyed." In 1793 the third work at this site was built, but in 1800 a tropical storm so damaged it that it was abandoned, being restored in the War of 1812. At the site of Fort Johnson the Confederate forces defending Charleston located a mortar battery from which to bombard Fort Sumter. It now became "an extensive entrenched camp of considerable strength and capacity." The Confederates evacuated this fort February 17, 1865, and the works were allowed to fall into decay. Latterly there has been an earnest effort at restoration.

FORT MOULTRIE, _Sullivan's Island_: A glorious day in the annals of South Carolina was the twenty-eighth of June, 1776. A partially built fort of palmetto logs repulsed the proud British fleet under Sir Peter Parker. Above this rude fort floated a South Carolina flag with a blue field in which was one crescent and the word LIBERTY. It was this flag that Sergeant Jasper rescued, his gallant deed commemorating his name. The first government of any of the thirteen American colonies was established at Charlestown, March, 1776, with John Rutledge as president, Henry Laurens as vice-president and William Henry Drayton as chief justice. Against Colonel William Moultrie's rude fort on that June day in 1776 was pitted a trained fleet of eleven armed vessels carrying 270 guns. Moultrie's garrison comprised 435 men. While Moultrie was engaged with Sir Peter Parker, Colonel William Thomson with 800 men and two cannons prevented Sir Henry Clinton from landing his soldiery. In the Battle of Fort Moultrie the defenders suffered only thirty-seven casualties while the fleet suffered more than 200, and the loss of a frigate. It was from Fort Moultrie that Major Robert Anderson on the night of December 26, 1860, removed his Union garrison into Fort Sumter. The Confederates used Fort Moultrie against the invading Union forces until Fort Sumter was abandoned by the South's defenders. Before Anderson left Moultrie, he had spiked the guns and burned their carriages. Fort Moultrie helped make Morris Island an unhappy place for Union troops under General Gilmore. At the entrance to the old fort is the grave of Osceola, chief of the Seminoles, who was brought a captive after the war in Florida a hundred years ago. In these years the fort gives name to a reservation which is the headquarters of the Eighth Infantry, a small detail of Coast Artillerymen being on duty with the coast defense guns.

FORT SUMTER, _at the Entrance to the Harbor_: Facing the open sea stands gallant Fort Sumter. No fortress in all America awakens greater memories. It is a shining emblem of Secession, enduring monument to the incomparable defense of Charleston by the Confederates. The bravest of the brave served within this shell-torn fortress, withstanding the siege of Union land and sea forces. Sumter is not alone a proud fortress, but a landmark invested with a wealth of patriotic sentiment. It is stirring American drama. "In the annals of the Federal army and navy, there is no exploit comparable to the defense of Charleston harbor. It would not be easy to match it in the records of European warfare"--the Rev. John Johnson, D.D., quoted an English historian. In skeleton, Fort Sumter's great story includes: April 7, 1863, it had part in the repulse of the United States armored squadron after a severe engagement. In August it "suffered its first great bombardment of sixteen days, ending in the demolition and silencing of the fort, chiefly by land batteries of Morris Island." Confederates effected immediate repairs. While these were making, the defenders of Sumter beat off a night attack by small boats. Then came the "second and third great bombardments, one of forty-one days, and the other, and last, of sixty days and nights continuously, both being borne without any thought of failure or surrender." The quotations are from an article by Dr. Johnson in _The News and Courier_. In all, the siege lasted until Charleston was evacuated February 17-18, 1865, "after 567 days of continuous military and naval operations." The famous fortress of Sumter, named for the Revolutionary hero, General Thomas Sumter, the "Game Cock," was built upon a shoal, the Secretary of War approving the plans in December, 1828. It is about a mile southwest of Fort Moultrie, Sullivan's Island, and the same distance northeast of Fort Johnson, James Island. It was nearing completion when on the night of December 26, 1860, Major Robert Anderson removed the Union garrison of Fort Moultrie to it. On the twelfth and thirteenth of April, 1861, it was bombarded by the Confederates for about thirty hours, Major Anderson surrendering. He evacuated the following day, embarking his men for the north. The Confederates at once put the fortress in order for defense. There had been no casualties on either side. Lieutenant Colonel R. S. Ripley was the first Confederate commander of Fort Sumter and Major Thomas A. Huguenin the last, the Confederate occupation extending from April 14, 1861, to February 17, 1865. Fort Sumter nowadays is without a garrison. It is part of the defenses of Charleston. A military caretaker lives within the battle-scarred walls. Modern coast defense guns are mounted. As a grim sentinel, Sumter still faces the open seas.

SITE OF FIRST THEATER, _43 Queen Street_: Plays were performed in Charles Town in 1703, according to Sonneck. However, the first regular theater was the Play House in Dock (now Queen) Street. Here in the winter of 1735, a company, "direct from England," presented its repertory. Members of Solomon's Lodge of the Ancient Free Masons, the oldest Masonic lodge in the United States, attended, in a body, the performance of "The Recruiting Officer" May 28, 1737. The Federal government has reproduced this theater; it was reopened officially November 26, 1937.

ST. PHILIP'S CHURCH, _144 Church Street_: St. Philip's is the oldest Protestant Episcopal congregation south of Virginia. The first edifice was built on the site now occupied by St. Michael's (southeast corner of Meeting and Broad Streets). The second and third were built at the present site. The first St. Philip's was erected in 1681-82. It was of wood, but little is known of it. Early maps designate it as the English Church. The second St. Philip's was opened for divine worship Easter Sunday, 1723. It faced the west and its steeple was eighty feet high. John Wesley, founder of Methodism, preached in this church two hundred years ago. The first Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina was the Right Reverend Robert Smith, rector of St. Philip's. This edifice was known far and wide for its great beauty. It was burned February 15, 1835. The third St. Philip's was used for service May 3, 1838. Its chimes, cast into Confederate cannon, have never been replaced. During twenty-two years an important mariners' light glowed in the steeple, the other light of this range having been on historic Fort Sumter. The light above St. Philip's was discontinued when the main channel was changed about twenty years ago. St. Philip's is known as the Westminster of the South as so many distinguished men of early years are in its graveyards, including Edward Rutledge, Signer of the _Declaration of Independence_; John C. Calhoun, often appraised South Carolina's greatest statesman; William Rhett, captor of Stede Bonnet and his associate pirates. During the War for Southern Independence Calhoun's body was removed for safekeeping, but it was later reinterred. The story of St. Philip's is coeval with the story of Charleston on this peninsula. Its communion plate is of uncommon interest and value, including pieces presented by William Rhett and a paten of unquestioned antiquity. The present edifice faces the east. The curve in Church Street passes through the site of the body of the edifice that was burned in 1835. President George Washington attended services in the second St. Philip's May 8, 1791, and President James Monroe May 2, 1819. The present St. Philip's is accounted one of the beautiful churches of America.

CRADLE OF PRESBYTERIANISM, _138 Meeting Street_: The congregation of the Circular Church dates to 1681. The small wooden building in the erection of which Landgrave Joseph Blake was influential was known as the White Meeting House and was replaced in 1804 by a brick edifice circular in form, that was burned in 1861. It was this church that gave name to Meeting Street. From this congregation sprang two other congregations, the First (Scotch) Presbyterian and the Unitarian. Some of the earliest graves in Charles Town are in the Circular Churchyard. David Ramsay, physician, statesman and historian, is buried in it. Some of the early Huguenots (French Protestants) are also buried in it. The chapel in the rear of the yard was built after the fire of 1861. The present edifice is without a great portico over the street.

HUGUENOT CHURCH, _136 Church Street_: The only Huguenot Church in America! This is the proud and unique distinction of the French Protestant Church in Charleston. Its congregation holds to the old Huguenot litany. It dates to 1681. The first recognized and regular pastor of the French Church was the Reverend Elias Prioleau, who came with the "great Huguenot immigration" about 1687; he died in 1699. Alluding to the Huguenots of Charles Town Bancroft said: "Their Church was in Charles Town and thither every Lord's Day, gathering from their plantations upon the banks of the Cooper, and taking advantage of the ebb and flow of the tide, they might all regularly be seen, the parents with their children, whom no bigot could now wrest from them, making their way in light skiffs through scenes so tranquil, that silence was broken only by the rippling of oars and the hum of the flourishing village at the confluence of the rivers." The first Huguenot Church was burned in 1740. The second church was also burned, in 1797. It was at once rebuilt and in 1845 it was remodeled to the form it now presents. "The church edifice is of great architectural beauty, being of pure Gothic, and its walls are adorned with mural tablets, commemorating the names and memories of the first Huguenot emigrants to Carolina." It is the boast of this congregation that it has had a church on the same site for more years than has any other Charleston congregation. For more than one hundred and fifty years the services were in the French language.

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, _61 Church Street_: When Charles Town on the peninsula was about three years old the first congregation of Baptists was formed. Some of these Baptists came from New England, with the Reverend William Screven, their pastor, and others came from England. Old records show that for several years the Baptists worshipped in the home of Mrs. William Chapman. Lady Blake, and her mother, Lady Axtell, were both Baptists and members of this congregation; their official rank lent strength to the church. William Elliott, a member, gave the site of the First Baptist Church in 1699. A wooden building was erected. The present building was on the site before 1826 and of it Mills says it showed "the best specimen of correct taste in architecture of the modern buildings in the city." There are many old graves in its yard.

SCOTCH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, _53 Meeting Street_: Sprung from the White Meeting House, the First (Scotch) Presbyterian Church dates to 1731. The Reverend Hugh Stewart, a native Scot, was its first pastor. The present edifice was dedicated in 1814. It was severely damaged in the earthquake of August 31, 1886, but fully restored. It has one of the finest auditoriums in the country. When the Marquis of Lorne (later the Duke of Argyle) and his wife, the Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, were in Charleston in January, 1883, they visited the Scotch Church to inspect a memorial tablet to their cousin, Lady Anne Murray. The Duke of Sutherland also made a trip to Charleston expressly to see it. May 2, 1819, President James Monroe attended service in the Scotch Church, hearing a sermon by the Reverend Mr. Reid, the pastor. This church celebrated its bicentennial in March, 1931. During 100 years it has had three pastors--the Reverend John Forrest, D.D., forty-seven years, the Reverend W. Taliaferro Thompson, D.D., twenty years and the Reverend Alexander Sprunt, D.D., thirty-three years. Prominent Charlestonians sleep the sleep eternal in its yard.