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.