Once A Cornerstone Building And City Landmark--Now Just An Exclamation Point In Time

It's a typical six in the evening on Meeting Street between Market and Hassel Streets. Standing in the shadow of Charleston Place, out-of-towners and locals patiently wait for the street signals to change so they can continue on their way to the various eating establishments east, west, south, and north of the Market Street intersection. Just beyond Charleston Place, the usual growing crowd is beginning to gather just outside of Hyman's Seafood as potential dinner patrons check out the restaurant's menu and wait for open tables.

Across the way, on the other side of the street, the scene is quite different. There are no gathering crowds, just passersby making their way to their selected destinations. The Bank of America building occupies this stretch of real estate beginning at Pinkney and ending at Hayne Street.

This was not always the case. At one time, this now relatively quiet stretch of sacred real estate was a hub of activity, and if you were standing on Meeting Street looking across from the Hyman's building in 1890, you would be basking in the aura of Charleston's premier hotel of the day, the Charleston Hotel.

The Bank of America building was built on the property in 1991, and not without controversy. After a protracted public debate, the developers were permitted to reclaim the historic height and scale of the Charleston Hotel, but was not allowed to restore the original facade. The buildings concrete colonnade is a poor knockoff for the dramatic colonnade of the original hotel. "This new building says little about its famous predecessor, which became the precursor, if not the icon, for tall white columns in the American South," stated Henry de Saussure Copeland.

Although, the Bank of America building was not the only other occupant of 200 Meeting Street. Directly after the Charleston Hotel was ravaged by a wrecking ball in 1960, the Heart of Charleston Motor Hotel preceded the Bank of America structure from the 1960's to the 1990's. Nowhere near representing the architectural wonder that was the Charleston Hotel, it was said to be famous for it's restaurant and loyal breakfast customers.

The Charleston Hotel had been both a landmark and reference point for all commercial buildings that grew up around it. The most regrettable impact of the hotel's demolition was the loss of an important base line and reference point for how future buildings should be designed. When I look at the picture of the Heart of Charleston Motor Hotel, I wonder why the City planners were remiss in maintaining high standards in design and did not specify the money that built this architecturally inferior hotel to be used in a restoration of the iconic Charleston Hotel instead of allowing it to become an exclamation point in time?

The first Charleston Hotel stood for less than 2 years before it was destroyed shortly after it opened by the Great fire of 1838. It carried the distinction of being counted among the first major buildings to be constructed in the Greek revival style in America by the renowned German architect, Charles Friedrich Reichardt, known as the initiator and ultimately the most prolific builder of landmarks that would contribute to the character of the American South.

A second Charleston Hotel would rise from the ashes of the first. Charles Reichardt had moved on to other commissions. Nathaniel Potter, Reichardt's contemporary and understudy, was hired to oversee the design and construction of its replacement. As instructed, Potter gladly rebuilt the hotel exactly as it had been. The reconstruction made economic as well as historic sense. It reopened in 1839.

The 170-room Charleston Hotel proudly graced Meeting Street for over 120 years and was a cornerstone building near the Old Market area. Extending eastward 264 feet on Pinckney Street and 200 feet on Hayne Street, it was an imposing four stories high with 14 columns patterned after the columns of the Coragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens--the city's largest hotel. Made of stucco and brick, its architecture was antique with two large dining rooms and high ceilings throughout--one dining room was 96 by 36 feet. A 75 by 80 foot open courtyard surrounded on three sides by wooden balconies was at its center.

This Charleston Hotel would endure the winds the Great Carolina Hurricane of 1854 on September 7-9, the firestorm of the Great Fire of 1861, the merciless shelling of the City during the Civil War, the tumult of the Great Charleston Earthquake of 1886, and the fury of the Great Sea Islands Hurricane of 1893 on August 27-28. It survived the earthquake, but not unscathed. The center portion of the parapet of the hotel's block-long Corinthian colonnade had been hurdled to the sidewalk during the massive upheaval reportedly crushing two ornate gas lamps that flanked the entrance door.

In June of 1894, a new company, Cart and Davids, took ownership. $100,000 was spent on a renovation. The entire first floor was re-arranged, including a complete change in its Meeting Street front entrance, office and parlor. The veranda on the first floor was converted into a vestibule enclosed in plate glass windows with three entrances. The rotunda was remodeled and enlarged. New elevators were added, a large number of rooms on the upper floors were fitted with toilets and attached bathrooms, and the entire interior was re-carpeted, refitted, and refurnished. Its rate was $4 per day and upwards. Special rates made by week and month.

The Charleston Hotel finally bowed to the most unrelenting and merciless of the natural forces, time. After serving 122 years as a defining landmark and anchor to its part of the city, the history making columns were pulverized by the mindless wrecking ball. The only thing preserved was the wrought iron railings that were part of the old hotel's colonnade, rumored to be displayed at an office building constructed in the 1980's located on Meeting Street three blocks south of the hotels original sight.

When given the chance to replace the Charleston Hotel a third time, those in charge skipped the historic record and instead of reestablishing the benchmark for other buildings the Charleston Hotel served, they opted for something else. This reportedly was done in spite of an offer put on the table by private developers with the option of reconstructing the hotel's famous façade, which was rejected by the city's preservation experts. Instead, what rose on the site was the Heart of Charleston Motor Hotel and eventually, the Bank of America building.

Next time you are in Charleston, take a walk up Meeting Street to the front of Hyman's. Once there, close your eyes and do a "Somewhere in Time." Maybe, if you concentrate hard enough, upon opening your eyes, you may find yourself in 1886 dressed in a hoop skirt or a gentleman's suit of the day sipping on a mint julep and standing before Charleston's premier hotel of the day. (It certainly would help the transition--the mint julep that is).

Pay attention to the date and the time. Locate a copy of the newspaper of the day, the News and Courier. If it is August 30th, check into the Charleston Hotel--soak in the antiquity and ambience. Make sure you register for only a one night stay. If you reserve August 31st, at 9:50 pm you will be running out of a pitch-black hotel with the rest of the guests seeking to escape the toppling furniture and falling plaster. You will have just experienced the famous Great Charleston Earthquake, which jolted the Lowcountry like an alligator rolling its quarry.

Two Early Charleston Theaters With Impressive Structures Hidden In The Shadows Of Time

The Time Machine has always been one of my favorite all-time movies--that is, the original version. Especially the scene where its inventor, George, enters his full-size machine, carefully inserts a masterfully crafted lever, excitedly yet slowly pushes it forward engaging its intricate mechanisms, and fully immersed in cautious wonderment, watches his surroundings and a store's mannequin across from his residence materially change in appearance season after season, year after year. I would have loved to place that same time machine on Church Street directly across from the building that became the Dock Street Theater so I could have watched the comings and goings through its many remarkable changing and passing years.

Today, standing on Church Street and looking directly towards the storied Dock Street Theater, the eye catching wrought iron balcony and sandstone columns gracing its facade immediately captures your imagination. The theater is by far Charleston's most remembered, not because it was the City's only theater, but simply because its appellation has survived Charleston's tumultuous history of confrontation, conflagration, and cataclysm. Its cycle of existence reminds me of the Bible passage at Revelation 17:8, which in part reads, "...and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder...when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is." The Dock Street Theater opened on February 12, 1736--"was", went out of existence in the Great Fire of 1740 and was replaced with the Planter's Hotel--"and is not", and finally returned as the Dock Street Theater on November 26, 1937--"and yet is."

During the time the Dock Street Theater was not, hidden in the shadows of time and lesser known by most people today, there existed two celebrated theaters housed in architecturally impressive structures. The Broad Street Theatre, also called Charleston Theatre, was built at the corner of Broad Street and Middleton Street (now New Street). The New Theater was constructed on Meeting Street.

The Broad Street Theatre was designed by James Hoban (best known as the architect of the White House in Washington). The masonry playhouse was built by contractor Capt. Anthony Toomer. As reported by the City Gazette on August 14, 1792, "the ground was laid off for the new theatre, on Savage's Green. …125 feet in length, the width 56 feet, the height 37 feet, with a handsome pediment, stone ornaments, a large flight of stone steps, and a palisaded courtyard. The front will be on Broad Street, and the pit entrance on Middleton Street. Owned by West and Bignall, the theater seated 1,200 people. It opened February 1793.

Soon after the Broad Street Theatre opened, Santo Domingan refugee John Sollée built a French-language theater on Church Street. Competition between the two theaters was fierce, and heightened by conflicting political alliances after France declared war on Great Britain in February 1793. While the wealthy elite patronized Shakespearean productions on Broad Street, supporters of the Jacobin revolutionaries flocked to the comedies, acrobatics, and light opera presented at the French Theater. After the 1795-96 season, it was effectively out of business.

While the Broad Street Theatre remained closed, the French and English theater companies merged during the spring of 1796 and through the summer of that year performed at a Church Street theater under the name of "City Theatre." Then, in the spring of 1800, the parties cooperated to open both playhouses. The re-opened Broad Street venue would present drama and the Church Street venue music, acrobatics, and ballet. Sollée then renovated his Church Street property as a music hall and ballroom, known for years as "Concert Hall." After 1800, the Broad Street theater was Charleston's only playhouse, and generally referred to as The Theatre.

The theater closed when the War of 1812 broke out, reopening in the autumn of 1815 under the management of English actor Joseph Holman. Junius Brutus Booth performed two engagements in the winter of 1821-22. On February 20, 1826, the City Gazette advised its readers that a "New Portico" would be erected at the expense of Mrs. Gilbert to induce attendance. Within a few years, the portico had been added to the Broad Street facade.

Broad Street Theatre became Medical College in 1833

By 1832, attendance had fallen off sharply. The decline was attributed to the steep price of tickets at a time when many had "circumscribed means." The tight wallets were a response to Charleston's weak economy, and the theater soon closed permanently. On July 25, 1833, the Broad Street Theatre was purchased by the faculty of the Medical College of the State of South Carolina for the sum of $12,000. The building was destroyed in the great fire of December 1861.

With the closing of the Broad Street theater, the city was without a proper theatrical venue. In early 1835, a group of businessmen led by Robert Witherspoon agreed to develop a new theater enterprise. They bought a lot on Meeting Street from the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free Masons of South Carolina, and organized "The Charleston New Theatre," as a joint-stock company.

New Theatre

Famous architect, Charles Reichardt (designer of the Charleston City Hall, original Charleston Hotel, Chisolm House, and Millford Plantation), designed the world-class auditorium. It was erected by a partnership of builders, Curtis, Fogartie and Sutton. While construction was underway, the theater was leased to an experienced actor-manager who brought a company of players to Charleston.

The Charleston Courier, December 18, 1837 described the 1200-seat New Theatre as being two full stories in height above a raised basement. The stuccoed brick building had a massive Ionic portico, with four columns, above an arcaded base. The portico was accessible only from within the building; entry from Meeting Street was through the arcade level. Three main doors opened to the lobby/vestibule, which had a ticket office at one side, ladies withdrawing room at the other, and a corridor leading to the boxes and seating floor. Above the richly ornamented auditorium was a large dome, at its center a forty-eight lamp chandelier eight feet across.

The New Theatre opened on December 15, 1837 to a large audience. After Mr. Latham delivered a "poetical address" written for the occasion by William Gilmore Simms, theater manager William Abbott took the lead role in the play, The Honey Moon, supported by Miss Melton and Mrs. Herbert, who also sang an "afterpiece."

In March of 1838, Junius Booth was booked to make his first appearance in Charleston in more than a decade at the theater. His characterization of Sir Giles Overreach was declared by the Southern Patriot as being on the whole "the most thrilling piece of acting we have ever seen…" In May, 1840, the celebrated German ballerina Fanny Elssler, whose appearances in Baltimore and New York had caused riots among her adoring fans, danced at Charleston's theater.

Although Abbott left Charleston in 1841, a series of managers were relatively successful in running the theater for the next twenty years. In 1858 and 1859, Edwin Booth (son of Junius Booth and brother of John Wilkes Booth) played several engagements. He reenacted his father's great roles as Richelieu, Hamlet, Giles Overreach, and Othello. The New Theatre was also destroyed in the great fire of December 1861.


The steps in the foreground was all that was left of the New Theatre after the 1861 fire and the Civil War.

The Broad Street Theatre and the New Theatre were not the only venues in Charleston back in their day just as the Dock Street Theatre is not the only one today, but they were prominent venues with impressive structures. What set the Dock Street Theatre apart from all others? It was America's first built exclusively to be used for theatrical performances and its name has prevailed over the ravages of time. It seats 475 people with state-of-the-art lighting and sound.

Not far from the Dock Street Theatre on Queen Street is the The Footlight Players. It was formally organized and incorporated in 1932. In 1934, the group purchased an old 1850 cotton warehouse that eventually became their permanent home. There are many other smaller venues located throughout Charleston--all producing quality entertainment.