Name/Title
122 East Bay Street (Old Exchange Building)Entry/Object ID
EBAY.122.1Scope and Content
Constructed 1767-71; altered 1818, 1886; partially restored 1949, 1979-83, 2007. William Rigby Naylor, architect/draftsman; Peter and John Adam Horlbeck, builders. In order to support Charleston's burgeoning transatlantic trade, the Commons House of Assembly voted a large sum of money for the building of an "Exchange and Custom House and a new Watch House" on the site of the original Half-Moon Battery at the foot of Broad Street. An Anglo-Irish draftsman, William Rigby Naylor, prepared drawings for one of the largest and grandest public buildings yet built in the colonies. Recent immigrant masons from Saxony, Peter and John Adam Horlbeck, contracted to undertake the construction, and the latter traveled to England to secure the specified materials. When completed, the building stood 2 stories above its massive basement with arcaded and rusticated openings on the first floor, pedimented pavilions with engaged Ionic columns on both the east and west elevations of the 2nd story, projecting stair towers with Venetian windows on the street elevation, and a surrounding portland stone parapet, ornamented by Neoclassical urns, partially disguising a hipped roof sheathed in Welsh Caernarvon slate. A columned, octagonal cupola with Venetian windows and a bell cast roof capped the center of the roof. The middle of the ground floor remained an open room, paved in Purbeck stone, for the exchange of commodities and specie, while a great hall on the second floor served as the center of the city's social life. The last royal governor, Lord William Campbell, was reluctantly greeted here while 257 chests of tea, detained in protest by the colonists, were stored in the building. The scene of an important meeting of the Patriots before the Revolution, the structure's basement became the Provost dungeon during the British occupation, providing a place for the detention of revolutionaries. After 1782 the building served as a city hall, site of the Ratification Convention of the Constitution (after the fire in the statehouse), and a point of welcome for President Washington when he landed at Prioleau's Wharf in 1791. When the structure was conveyed to the federal government in 1818, the stair towers were demolished as a hindrance to East Bay Street, the Great Hall was removed for the installation of a staircase, and the original cupola was replaced by a large arcaded example, sited on a new base. Since it was damaged in the Civil War, the federal government considered its demolition during Reconstruction, a move protested by the preservationist Charlestonians. After earthquake damage in 1886, the original parapet and urns were lost, and the new cupola was also removed and other Victorian alterations were made. Again threatened with destruction in 1912, the Exchange became the property of the Rebecca Motte Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1921. An expansive bicentennial restoration project planned in 1976 resulted in much restoration of missing elements including the cupola and windows. Restoration also included the cast stone replacement of the urns on a stuccoed parapet, the closing in of the central hall with large colonial style transomed doors, new fire stair towers on the east side, and a conjectural restoration of the upstairs great hall, a space which again serves the community for social events. The Old Exchange Building operates as a museum by the City of Charleston, and its basement provides the only opportunity to view the city's original fortifications: the curving brick wall of the Half-Moon Battery. (Poston, Buildings of Charleston.)
File contains various building history from Vernacular Architecture of Charleston; building history from Architectural Guide to Charleston; building history from Information for Guides of Historic Charleston; building history from A Brief History of U.S. District Courthouses in South Carolina; book and magazine articles (including DYKYC); Old Exchange brochures; booklet "South Carolina's Historic Exchange Building" (W.H.J. Thomas); National Register Nomination Form; documentation of timber taken from the site that was used later at the Powder Magazine; "The Exchange Building: A Preliminary Restoration Study Prepared for City Planning and Architectural Associates" (1973 report by National Heritage Corporation); letter from the Rebecca Motte Chapter of D.A.R. to members regarding the restoration of the building (1969); lease agreement between Old Exchange Building and the Rebecca Motte Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (1975); report regarding paint color proposals (1988); document "Conclusions and Recommendations Regarding Traffic Flow" (unattributed, undated but post-1973); "Examination of Construction Sequence at the Exchange Building" (Martha Zierden and Debi Hacker, Charleston Museum Archaeological Contributions 14); quitclaim deed (1917); "Estimated Cost of Emergency Repairs" (1986) and "Certification of Availability of Funding" [for roof repair and renovation] (1987);letter from John Laurens of Preservation Consultants, Inc. to Fran McCarthy regarding the historical significance of the site and need for continued repair and stewardship (undated); letter about the construction of the mannequins used in the Dungeon..
Image #3 from Guide to Charleston Illustrated, 1875.Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation Property RecordsAcquisition
Accession
EBAY.122.Source or Donor
122 East Bay Street (Old Exchange Building)Acquisition Method
Collected by StaffLexicon
Search Terms
National Register of Historic Places, East Bay Street, Old Exchange Building and Provost Dungeon (Charleston, S.C.), Historic buildings--South Carolina--CharlestonArchive 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 35Shelf
Prop File Shelves, Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentRelationships
Related Entries
Notes
2004.020.088, 2005.004.017, 2006.001.001, 2006.005.017, 2006.010.132-136, 2007.005.1c, 2011.015.27, 2011.019.1, 2011.022.94, 2011.022.95a-d, 2013.002.098, 2021.013.6, BROAD.GEN.003, BROAD.GEN.005, BROAD.GEN.006a-b, EBAY.122.10, EBAY.122.2, EBAY.122.3, EBAY.122.4, EBAY.122.5, EBAY.122.6, EBAY.122.7a-b, EBAY.122.8a-b, EBAY.122.9a-b
Related Units of Description: Search catalog for subject "Old Exchange Building and Provost Dungeon"
Preservation Consultants research files, 2011.022.1
Old Exchange Building in Frances Edmunds Collection, HCF.FRE.03, Box 39.Related Publications
Notes
Buildings of Charleston (see Abstract), pg. 109-111Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
November 15, 2007Updated By
admin@catalogit.appUpdate Date
February 17, 2023