The South Carolina State House is the building housing the government of the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
of
South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
, which includes the
South Carolina General Assembly
The South Carolina General Assembly, also called the South Carolina Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of South Carolina. The legislature is bicameral and consists of the lower South Carolina House of Representatives and t ...
and the offices of the
Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
and
Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina
The lieutenant governor of South Carolina is the second-in-command to the governor of South Carolina. Beyond overseeing the Office on Aging and the responsibility to act or serve as governor in the event of the office's vacancy, the duties of th ...
. Located in the capital city of
Columbia near the corner of Gervais and Assembly Streets, the building also housed the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
until 1971.
The State House is in the
Classical Revival
Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...
style; it is approximately tall, long, wide. It weighs more than and has of space.
Old Carolina State House
The old State House was constructed between 1786 and 1790.
James Hoban
James Hoban (1755 – December 8, 1831) was an Irish-American architect, best known for designing the White House.
Life
James Hoban was a Roman Catholic raised on Desart Court estate belonging to the Earl of Desart near Callan, County Kilkenny ...
, a young
Irishman
The Irish ( ga, Muintir na hÉireann or ''Na hÉireannaigh'') are an ethnic group and nation native to the island of Ireland, who share a common history and culture. There have been humans in Ireland for about 33,000 years, and it has been c ...
who emigrated to Charleston shortly after the Revolution, was the
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
. Upon the recommendation of
Henry Laurens
Henry Laurens (December 8, 1792) was an American Founding Father, merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Laure ...
, President Washington engaged him to design the
executive mansion in
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
. Old pictures of the two buildings show architectural similarities.
The Old State House
was destroyed during the burning of Columbia in 1865.
Historic photos
Architecture
![South Carolina Statehouse underground facility](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/South_Carolina_Statehouse_underground_facility.jpg)
The South Carolina State House was designed first by architect P. H. Hammarskold.
Construction began in 1851, but the original architect was dismissed for fraud and dereliction of duty.
Soon thereafter, the structure was largely dismantled because of defective materials and workmanship.
John Niernsee redesigned the structure and work began on it in 1855, slowed during the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, and was suspended in 1865 as General
W.T. Sherman's
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
entered Columbia on February 17. Several public buildings were "put to the torch" when United States troops entered the city.
The new capitol building, still under construction, was damaged by artillery shells. The old capitol building was set afire by U.S. Army troops under Sherman's command.
Reconstruction-era poverty slowed progress. The building's main structure was finally completed in 1875. From 1888 to 1891, Niernsee's son, Frank McHenry Niernsee, served as architect and much of the interior work was completed. In 1900
Frank Pierce Milburn
Frank Pierce Milburn (December 12, 1868 - September 21, 1926) was a prolific American architect of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His practice was primarily focused on public buildings, particularly courthouses and legislative buildings, ...
began as architect, but was replaced in 1905 by
Charles Coker Wilson
Charles C. Wilson (November 20, 1864 – 1933), whose full name is Charles Coker Wilson, was an American architect based in Columbia, South Carolina.
Wilson was born in Hartsville, South Carolina, and graduated from South Carolina College with ...
who finally finished the exterior in 1907.
Additional renovations were made in 1959 and 1998.
The State House was designated a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1976 for its significance in the post-Civil War
Reconstruction Era
The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...
.
[ and ]
Grounds
![Columbia, SC Capitol grounds (Southside)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Columbia%2C_SC_Capitol_grounds_%28Southside%29.jpg)
The land around the South Carolina State House has changed dramatically since the construction of the first State House in Columbia in 1786. The grounds were not maniscured or designed and the public consistently commented upon the site as a disgrace to the state. With the erection of the current State House in the 1850s at the center of Main (Richardson) Street, the grounds were extended to Sumter Street to the east but remained an active construction site until after the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
and the
burning of Columbia and the grounds.
The state legislatures following Reconstruction were the first to make plans for the grounds' design. Landscape architect
Edward Otto Schwagerl drew plans in 1878 for a
picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in ''Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year ...
plan of winding paths and drives to surround the building; it made no suggestions for the location or erection of monuments, was only partially executed, and was poorly maintained. Complaints about the grounds led the city's Civic Improvement League to design a plan for the grounds' improvement and expansion as part of a
City Beautiful
The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. It was a part of the ...
master plan for the city from Boston firm Kelsey & Guild in 1904, but it was never executed.
Monuments were added to the grounds during this period with little consideration of their overall configuration or relationship to the building and the public continued to complain about the property's condition into the 1960s.
![SC State House from south](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/SC_State_House_from_south.jpg)
The grounds also include the following monuments:
*Grave of Swanson Lunsford - buried 1799; markers erected 1837 and 1953. The only person buried on the grounds, Lunsford was a Revolutionary War veteran and an early commissioner of the city of Columbia.
*President
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
: bronze replica cast in 1857, purchased by South Carolina in 1858; replica of
Jean-Antoine Houdon
Jean-Antoine Houdon (; 20 March 1741 – 15 July 1828) was a French neoclassical sculptor.
Houdon is famous for his portrait busts and statues of philosophers, inventors and political figures of the Enlightenment. Houdon's subjects included De ...
's Washington statue at the
Virginia State Capitol
The Virginia State Capitol is the seat of state government of the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in Richmond, the third capital city of the U.S. state of Virginia. (The first two were Jamestown and Williamsburg.) It houses the oldest elected ...
. Erected to connect Washington's role as a revolutionary and slaveholder to the politics of South Carolinian planters.
*
Palmetto Monument - The legislature appropriate funds for this monument, created by
Christopher Werner
Christopher W. Werner (1805–1875) was a nineteenth-century wrought iron manufacturer, artisan, and entrepreneur based in Charleston, South Carolina, US. He was one of three noted German-American ironworkers in Charleston, who created most of ...
, in 1856; it is a cast iron and copper
palmetto commemorating the Palmetto Regiment, South Carolina's soldiers in the Mexican-American War. South Carolina had a vested interest in the war's outcomes as the acquisition of new territory changed the balance of states in the U.S. Congress.
*
Wade Hampton III
Wade Hampton III (March 28, 1818April 11, 1902) was an American military officer who served the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War and later a politician from South Carolina. He came from a wealthy planter family, and ...
- This 16-foot bronze
equestrian statue
An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a d ...
of Hampton, a Confederate general and later South Carolina governor and U.S. Senator, was unveiled in November 1906. It was modeled by
Frederick W. Ruckstull
Frederick Wellington Ruckstull, German: ''Friedrich Ruckstuhl'' (May 22, 1853 – May 26, 1942) was a French-born American sculptor and art critic.
Life and career
Born ''Ruckstuhl'' in Breitenbach, Alsace, France, his family moved to St. L ...
and represents Hampton as both a commander of the Confederate cavalry (body and horse) and as the state's first post-Reconstruction governor (head). The first major equestrian monument in the state, it celebrates the
Lost Cause
The Lost Cause of the Confederacy (or simply Lost Cause) is an American pseudohistorical negationist mythology that claims the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was just, heroic, and not centered on slavery. Firs ...
and the "redemption" of white Democrats over the majority Black Republican legislatures of Reconstruction. The sculpture was moved from its original location on axis with Hampton's grave at Trinity Cathedral on the grounds' northeast side to its current location in 1969.
*Revolutionary War Generals (dedicated 1913): monument sculpted by
Frederic W. Ruckstull and commissioned by the South Carolina chapter of the
Daughters of the American Revolution
The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence.
A non-profit group, they promote ...
; honors
Andrew Pickens,
Thomas Sumter
Thomas Sumter (August 14, 1734June 1, 1832) was a soldier in the Colony of Virginia militia; a brigadier general in the South Carolina militia during the American Revolution, a planter, and a politician. After the United States gained independe ...
and
Francis Marion
Brigadier-General Francis Marion ( 1732 – February 27, 1795), also known as the Swamp Fox, was an American military officer, planter and politician who served during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. During the Ameri ...
.
*South Carolina Monument to the Confederate Dead - This Confederate memorial was erected in 1879,
[Brown, Thomas J., "The Confederate Retreat to Mars and Venus" in ''Battle Scars: Gender and Sexuality in the American Civil War'' (eds. Catherine Clinton & Nina Silber: Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 189-91.] and was unveiled before a crowd of 15,000.
[Prince, K. Michael, ''Rally 'round the Flag, Boys!: South Carolina and the Confederate Flag'' (University of South Carolina Press, 2004), pp. 23-24.] The obelisk was designed by Muldoon, Walker and Cobb and the sculpture designed by Carlo Nicoli. The South Carolina Monument Association, a group of white women, originally conceived of the sculpture in 1869 as an early example of
Lost Cause
The Lost Cause of the Confederacy (or simply Lost Cause) is an American pseudohistorical negationist mythology that claims the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was just, heroic, and not centered on slavery. Firs ...
commemoration and resistance to
Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
. They planned it for a different location (Taylor's Hill near the governor's mansion), but the end of
Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
and ousting of the biracial, Republican-led state legislature made it possible for the sculpture and obelisk to be erected on the State House grounds. It was installed on the northeast side of the grounds following the 1876 election of Governor
Wade Hampton III
Wade Hampton III (March 28, 1818April 11, 1902) was an American military officer who served the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War and later a politician from South Carolina. He came from a wealthy planter family, and ...
in a fraudulent and violent election. The statue atop the monument's obelisk was largely destroyed by lightning in 1882, but was replaced by the state two years later and relocated to its current site on axis with the State House's north entrance.
A
Confederate battle flag
The flags of the Confederate States of America have a history of three successive designs during the American Civil War. The flags were known as the "Stars and Bars", used from 1861 to 1863; the "Stainless Banner", used from 1863 to 1865; and ...
flew on a poll behind the monument from 2000 until it was removed in 2015 by a state bill following the murder of nine African Americans at
Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.
Before 2000, the Confederate flag had flown over the building's dome since the legislature's 1962 concurrent resolution during the commemoration of the Civil War centennial (the resolution failed to designate a time for its removal). The flag was moved near the monument on July 1, 2000, after passage of the
South Carolina Heritage Act
The South Carolina Heritage Act is a South Carolina statute that forbids the removal or alteration of historic monuments located on public property in South Carolina as well as the rededication of any public areas or structures named after a hist ...
and decades of debate and boycotts of the state over the issue.
It was then removed from the grounds on July 10, 2015, by order of Republican governor
Nikki Haley, and given to the
South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum.
*Monument to Women of the Confederacy - a bronze
Confederate monument
In the United States, the public display of Confederate monuments, memorials and symbols has been and continues to be controversial. The following is a list of Confederate monuments and memorials that were established as public displays and symb ...
, by
Frederic W. Ruckstull, erected in 1912 and promoted by the
United Confederate Veterans
The United Confederate Veterans (UCV, or simply Confederate Veterans) was an American Civil War veterans' organization headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was organized on June 10, 1889, by ex-soldiers and sailors of the Confederate Sta ...
.
[ Originally located on the south steps of the State House, it was moved to the northeast corner of the grounds in 1935 and then to its current location circa 1972.]
*Mount for Spanish Cannon - The U.S. government gifted the city of Columbia an eighteenth-century Spanish cannon captured in the July 1898 Battle of Santiago as a monument to the Spanish-American War
Spanish Americans ( es, españoles estadounidenses, ''hispanoestadounidenses'', or ''hispanonorteamericanos'') are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from Spain. They are the longest-established European American group in th ...
. It was mounted on the west side of the State House in 1900 on a granite carriage and rested there until the cannon was scrapped during World War II. The mount sits near its original location with plaques that recognize it as a monument to both the Spanish-American War
Spanish Americans ( es, españoles estadounidenses, ''hispanoestadounidenses'', or ''hispanonorteamericanos'') are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from Spain. They are the longest-established European American group in th ...
and to the civilian effort during World War II.
*Gun from USS ''Maine'' - The city of Columbia erected this gun, retrieved from Havana Harbor in 1910, as a monument to the Spanish-American War in Irwin Park near the Columbia Canal in 1913. It was moved to the State House grounds in 1931 and rededicated with a Confederate battle flag, Union Jack
The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...
, and U.S. flag draping it as a celebration of the Spanish-American War's reconciliation of Americans from the North and South.
*James F. Byrnes
James Francis Byrnes ( ; May 2, 1882 – April 9, 1972) was an American judge and politician from South Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in U.S. Congress and on the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as in the executive branch, ...
- A monument to this longtime South Carolina politician was erected in 1972 after a private fundraising effort.
* Strom Thurmond - In the late 1990s, the state erected a statue in honor of the former South Carolina governor, U.S. senator, and Dixiecrat candidate for president. The original inscription of the names of Thurmond's children were later altered to include the name of Essie Mae Washington-Williams
Essie Mae Washington-Williams (née Butler; October 12, 1925 – February 4, 2013) was an American teacher and author. She is best known as the eldest child of Strom Thurmond, Governor of South Carolina (1947–1951) and longtime United States ...
, the daughter of Thurmond and an African American maid.
*Benjamin Tillman
Benjamin Ryan Tillman (August 11, 1847 – July 3, 1918) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as governor of South Carolina from 1890 to 1894, and as a United States Senator from 1895 until his death in 1918. A whit ...
(dedicated 1940) - U.S. Senator; this monument is controversial due to Tillman's virulent racism, support for Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
, and advocacy of terrorizing blacks who attempted to vote during Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
. In 2017, protestors called for its removal.
*Dr. J. Marion Sims
James Marion Sims (January 25, 1813November 13, 1883) was an American physician in the field of surgery. His most famous work was the development of a surgical technique for the repair of vesicovaginal fistula, a severe complication of obstruc ...
- A monument to Sims, a South Carolina physician and pioneer in gynecology
Gynaecology or gynecology (see spelling differences) is the area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, forming the combined are ...
, is located on State House grounds near the intersection of Assembly and Gervais streets. This monument is controversial because Sims engaged in surgical experimentation on enslaved women without anesthesia
Anesthesia is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prevention of pain), paralysis (muscle relaxation), ...
.
*African-American History
African-American history began with the arrival of Africans to North America in the 16th and 17th centuries. Former Spanish slaves who had been freed by Francis Drake arrived aboard the Golden Hind at New Albion in California in 1579. The ...
Monument - authorized by Act 457 of the General Assembly and unveiled on March 26, 2001.
* Law Enforcement Memorial - Erected in 2005, this memorial honors South Carolina law enforcement officers killed while on duty.
Captain Swanson Lunsford (d. 1799), a Virginia-born American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
officer who once owned land that is now part of the State House, is buried on State House grounds, along with a marker erected by his descendants in 1953.Revolutionary War Soldier Gravesite
South Carolina State House.
Statehouse grounds gallery
See also
*
Christopher Werner
Christopher W. Werner (1805–1875) was a nineteenth-century wrought iron manufacturer, artisan, and entrepreneur based in Charleston, South Carolina, US. He was one of three noted German-American ironworkers in Charleston, who created most of ...
, maker of the "Iron Palmetto"
*
List of National Historic Landmarks in South Carolina
This is a List of National Historic Landmarks in South Carolina, United States. The United States' National Historic Landmark (NHL) program is operated under the auspices of the National Park Service, and recognizes buildings, sites, structures, d ...
*
List of state and territorial capitols in the United States
This is a list of state and territorial capitols in the United States, the building or complex of buildings from which the government of each U.S. state, the District of Columbia and the organized territories of the United States, exercise its ...
References
External links
South Carolina State House virtual tour*
*
*
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures in Columbia, South Carolina
Greek Revival architecture in South Carolina
Government buildings completed in 1907
Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina
Government of South Carolina
Historic American Buildings Survey in South Carolina
National Historic Landmarks in South Carolina
National Register of Historic Places in Columbia, South Carolina
State capitols in the United States
Government buildings with domes
Tourist attractions in Columbia, South Carolina