Looking at Charleston
the steeple of St. Michael’s Church
ALL THE ENTRIES in this series will derive from text and photos by architectural historian Gene Waddell, archivist at the College of Charleston. We hope these excerpts will allow you to benefit from Gene’s scholarly insight into the unique architecture of this city.
The origin of Gene’s material is his unpublished, copyrighted architectural guide to the most distinctive buildings on the peninsula. It describes residences, churches, and public buildings and how they were constructed—specifically, their sources of design, design features, materials, and methods of construction.
By 1861, Charleston covered an area of over five square miles between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, from White Point Gardens to the city’s boundary at Mt. Pleasant Street. Inside that area, the 1861 census listed 6,692 buildings, the great majority of which have survived. They lie along some 80 miles of downtown streets, and to look carefully at each one would take over a month. The 350 or so most architecturally significant ones, however, can been seen leisurely in one week, walking a few miles at a time. Hopefully this series of short articles will make that even easier: one building at a time, in rich detail, with great viewing pleasure. •
Charleston in 1855 • map from www.historicmapsrestored.com
About Gene Waddell
Gene’s distinguished career includes roles as director of the South Carolina Historical Society; archivist for the Getty Center in Santa Monica, California; head of collection development at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, Canada; and archivist at the College of Charleston, his Alma Mater. His numerous scholarly works on historical architecture include:
Creating The Pantheon: Design, Materials, and Construction
(L’Erma di Bretschneider, 2008)
Charleston Architecture 1670–1860
(Wyrick & Company, 2003)
Charleston In 1883 (co-author)
(Southeastern Historical Press, 1983)
Gene has documented and photographed buildings around the world and continues to write.
Copyright Notice: all material in this series is the exclusive property of Gene Waddell. If you want to reuse any of it in any form, you must get permission in writing from chastoday@charlestontoday.net.
