SOUTH CAROLINA HALL, 72 Meeting Street: This is the property of the South Carolina Society, built in 1804 as a free school and meeting place, but the society dates to 1736 when it was formed by French Protestants for charitable purposes. In the beginning it was known as the Two-Bit Club. Through years it has done noble work in assisting the families of deceased members and in educating their children. The porch over Meeting Street is notably attractive; it was added when the building was improved and enlarged. Members have made liberal donations to this society, as mural tablets in the hall attest. The St. Andrew’s Society, organized by Scots in 1729, is quartered in this building, accounting for the presence of tables and chairs used in the Secession convention in St. Andrew’s Hall, Broad Street, burned in the fire of 1861.
THE SWORD GATES, 32 Legare Street: Years and years ago, a famous school for girls was on this property under the principalship of Madame Talvande, survivor of the Domingo massacres. It is one of the most desirable residential properties in Charleston. It was built in 1776. Through the Sword Gates (1815-20), uncommonly fine examples of ornate and graceful iron work, one peeps into a beckoning garden, protected by high brick walls. The ballroom in the house is known as one of the most elegant in Charleston. There are really two houses, the older, of brick, on the north; the wooden building has broad piazzas on two sides, overlooking the large garden to the south and west. For years, after the Confederate War, Colonel Charles H. Simonton, United States Circuit Judge, distinguished Confederate officer, and his family lived here. Now it is the property of a granddaughter of President Abraham Lincoln, who owns also the old Magwood Gardens in St. Andrew’s Parish on the Ashley River Road. Kinspeople of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln have long been resident in the Barnwell section of this State.
BETH ELOHIM SYNAGOGUE, 74 Hasell Street: Charleston has had a Jewish congregation since 1750. The tabernacle of Beth Elohim was dedicated in March, 1843, and was among the first synagogues in which an organ was installed. To this congregation is attributed the Jewish Reform movement in the United States, which had its beginning in 1824. The Beth Elohim congregation had a tabernacle on this site just after the Revolution; it was destroyed in the fire of 1838. The incorporation of the congregation dates to 1781. The present tabernacle is a fine example of the Athenian style in architecture. Certain changes in the interior were made about 1880.
YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, 26 George Street: While this handsome and commodious building was completed in 1912, the association in Charleston was organized in 1854 and is one of the oldest. Its beginning was less than ten years after the Young Men’s Christian Association was founded in London, England, June 6, 1844; the Charleston date was February, 1854. The Charleston association moved into its own building at 208 King Street in 1889 and there remained until it occupied the present building at 26 George Street. Clarence Olney Getty has been general secretary since 1917.
YOUNG WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, 76 Society Street: This Charleston branch of a great association had its beginning in 1903. Its first quarters were in an old residence at 21 George Street, the modern building coming with the growth of membership and the increase of community calls.
GRACE CHURCH, 100 Wentworth Street: Its congregation founded in 1840, its corner stone laid in July, 1847, Grace Episcopal Church was consecrated November 9, 1848. The Reverend Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, D.D., was its rector from 1850 to his death in 1898, nearly a half century. The Reverend William Way, D.D., has been rector more than a quarter of a century. Grace has one of the largest and most prosperous Episcopalian congregations in the South.
ST. PAUL’S CHURCH, 126 Coming Street: This is frequently called St. Paul’s, Radcliffeboro, as its site was outside the town when the edifice was consecrated in March, 1816; the congregation was founded in 1811. Its first rector was the Reverend Dr. Percy, an Englishman, who in 1772 took charge of the Bethesda school near Savannah, established by George Whitefield. St. Paul’s is a handsome building with Gothic tower and an impressive portico, with four Doric columns.
ST. PETER’S P.E. CHURCH, Rutledge and Sumter Streets: On this site of Christ Church is St. Peter’s, so named from the old church at No. 8 Logan Street. Through arrangement of the two vestries, the new St. Peter’s came into the old St. Peter’s properties. The Logan Street church was burned in the fire of 1861. Its graveyard is maintained. Possibly it was on this site that Hessian soldiers were drilled during the Revolution, as Charles Fraser says they went through their military exercises in Logan Street.
CONVENT OF OUR LADY OF MERCY, Legare and Queen Streets: This large brick building is of quite recent construction, but the Sisters of Mercy have been in Charleston more than a hundred years. Misses Mary Joseph and Honora O’Gorman, their niece, Mary Teresa Barry, fourteen years and six months old, and Miss Mary Burke arrived in Charleston November 23, 1829, coming on the invitation of Bishop John M. England. The Misses O’Gorman were natives of Cork, living in Baltimore, Maryland. December 10 they accepted the habit of religion, with Sister Mary Joseph as superioress of the new Community. In a small house on Friend (now Legare) Street the Sisters established the Academy of Our Lady of Mercy in December, 1830. Two years later the Bishop established a seminary and appointed Sister Mary Martha (Miss Honora O’Gorman) to its supervision. The Orphanage, Queen and Logan Streets, was established in 1840, under the care of the Sisters. The St. Francis Xavier Infirmary, Ashley Avenue and Calhoun Street, dates to 1882; it began in the McHugh residence, Magazine Street. In 1870 the Sisters acquired the old Nathaniel Russell house, 51 Meeting Street, relinquishing it on the completion of the new Convent. From the Charleston Community of Sisters of Mercy have gone other communities into both Carolinas and Georgia. Nor yellow fever nor war nor earthquake has swerved these consecrated women. They were angels of mercy in the yellow fever epidemics of 1835 and 1852. They nursed friend and foe alike in the War for Southern Independence. Notwithstanding the alarm and excitement in the time of the earthquake (1886) they ministered calmly, sweetly, efficiently to the sick and the injured.
