Name/Title
81-83 Broad Street (Federal Courthouse and Post Office)Entry/Object ID
BROAD.083.001Scope and Content
Constructed 1896-97; restoration and addition 1987. John Henry Devereux, architect. This southwest corner of the original civic square, today the "four corners," has successively contained a mid-18th century guardhouse and treasury building, a mid-19th century colonnaded guard house, a building for the Charleston Club, and, since the earthquake of 1886, the present building. The current federal court house and post office was designed by the Irish-born architect John Henry Devereux, a former plasterer who became a noted architect in Charleston in the late 1860s. Built in the Renaissance Revival style, the federal courthouse is constructed of Winnsboro, SC, granite. Its rich interior exemplifies the opulence inherent in the construction of public buildings in this period. The post office on the ground floor is embellished with carved woodwork, marble staircase, and wrought-iron and brass railings. The federal district court still sits in the paneled Victorian courtroom on the second floor. In the early 1980s, the General Services Administration commissioned an architectural firm to design a southern addition. Completed in 1987, the addition was dedicated as the Hollings Judicial Annex in honor of the U.S. senator from Charleston. The park contains an early-20h century cast iron fountain and bronze statue of James F. Byrnes, a Charlestonian who was an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a United States Supreme Court justice. (Poston, Buildings of Charleston.)
File contains building histories (author unidentified); newspaper articles from 1931-1988; Charleston postal history (source not identified); photocopies of photographic images; National Register Nomination Form.Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation Property RecordsAcquisition
Accession
BROAD.083.Source or Donor
83 Broad Street (Federal Courthouse and Post Office)Acquisition Method
Collected by StaffLexicon
LOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials
Historic buildings, Courthouses, Post officesSearch Terms
Broad Street, Civic Square, National Register of Historic Places, Meeting Street, Street corner, U.S. Post Office and Courthouse (Charleston, S.C.)Archive Details
Archive Size/Extent
1 File FolderArchive Notes
Finding Aids: Index to Property Files
Level of Description: FolderLocation
Location
Shelf
Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentDate
February 7, 2023Location
Container
PF Box 11Shelf
Prop File Shelves, Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Devereux, John HenryRelated Entries
Notes
2009.002.065, 2009.002.068Related Publications
Notes
Buildings of Charleston (see Abstract), pg. 168Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
May 13, 2004Updated By
admin@catalogit.appUpdate Date
February 16, 2023