Name/Title
80 Meeting Street (St. Michael's Church) (a/k/a 71 Broad Street)Entry/Object ID
MEETING.080.1Scope and Content
Constructed 1752-61; interior completed 1772; renovated 1818, 1887, 1905; restored 1993-94. Samuel Cardy, contractor; Humphrey Sommers, mason; Henry Burnet and Anthony Forehand, carvers. St. Michael's Church has long been considered one of America's most sophisticated colonial church buildings. It was begun in 1752 following an act of the Assembly for building a new parish church on the site of the first St. Philip's. Whatever the origin of the plan and the stylistic relationship between this building and the London city churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren and James Gibbs, St. Michael's cannot be tied to one source or definitively attributed to a single architect. The exterior, except the Tuscan portico, was essentially complete by 1756. The steeple, which rises 186 feet, is today surmounted by a 7½ foot weathervane with a gilt ball, an 1820s replacement of an earlier ball and dragon vane gilded by artist Jeremiah Theus. Building commissioners' records reveal that Henry Burnet, a house and ship carver from London who died in 1761, carved the details for the steeple and interior details such as the capitals of the gallery columns, the narthex stair brackets, and the pulpit. The base and sounding board of the pulpit are late-19th century replacements. New research show that Burnet also executed the flowers in the soffit that surrounds the crest of the cove ceiling and the central pendant from which a London brass chandelier of 1803 is suspended. Anthony Forehand carved the large column capitals of the chancel; English carver John Lord completed the altar. Most of this work was destroyed by Federal shelling in 1865, but the English wrought-iron altar rail, installed in 1772, survives and has been restored with Prussian blue paint and gilded components. The present chancel area was restored after the Civil War with plaster details and the insertion of a Tiffany stained glass window depicting St. Michael slaying the dragon. In 1906 Tiffany and Company was further engaged to enhance the chancel with the eight small plaster columns around the stained glass window and elaborate paintwork, especially the stenciled decoration in the apse. Further work was completed in this area by architect Albert Simons in the 1940s. The box pews in the church are original and, like the columns, gallery facings, and soffits, are fashioned of red cedar. These have been restored with a vermilion wash, and the early-19th century pew numbers have been conserved. The noteworthy furnishings of the church include the 1770s font, ordered from London; the original case of the former 1768 Snetzler organ; and many marble memorial plaques, including a memorial carved in London to Mary Blacklock in the narthex under the steeple. In the surrounding burial ground, approached from Meeting Street through gates with funerary urns in wrought iron, are located the only in situ wooden grave board in America, dated 1772. Also located here are gravestones for Edward Rutledge, signer of the Declaration of Independence; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, signer of the U.S. Constitution; Gen. Mordecai Gist, Maryland Revolutionary War hero; and the Charleston jurist, James Louis Petigru. The church received shell damage to the chancel in the Civil War, but its steeple, painted black for the duration of the conflict, escaped damage. The bells, imported from England in 1764, were stolen by the British in 1782 and later returned. They were burned in Columbia in 1865 and returned to the Whitechapel Foundry of their origin to be recast. In 1993, they were again returned to Whitechapel and have been re-hung as a full ring of bells. St. Michael's Church is one of Charleston's most enduring symbols. Often depicted by artists and described by writers, its bells are featured in the musical score of the opera Porgy and Bess. (Poston, Buildings of Charleston.)
Files contain narrative histories; historical research notes; building history from Architectural Guide to Charleston (by Simons & Thomas); description from "Resources & Attractions of Charleston" (ca. 1898); St. Michael's "The Messenger" articles about the clock, refinishing of the pew, etc. (1993); St. Michael's Church informational brochures; architectural drawings and plats (photocopies); reports "Interior Analysis" (Alan Kemper, 1985) and "Technical Discussion" (by Nigel Johnson, undated); various excerpts from books about the church architecture and the Church itself; newspaper articles (including undated, 1985 DYKYC); Magazine Antiques article about stained glass restoration (Dec. 2005); correspondence mostly to and from Jonathan Poston regarding church restoration (1990-1994); Church's property managers reports (2000-2001) and Church buildings and grounds committee reports (2000-2001); Hurricane Hugo Repairs documentation (Cummings & McCrady, 1991); "St. Michael's Church Restoration Complete" in Hill Construction Corporation Jobsite News (1994); letter about the maker of the gates, J.A.W. Iusti (1986); 1887 Souvenir Card.Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation Property RecordsAcquisition
Accession
MEETING.080.Source or Donor
80 Meeting Street (St. Michael's Church a/k/a 71 Broad Street)Acquisition Method
Collected by StaffLexicon
Search Terms
Meeting Street, Churches/Synagogues/Houses of Worship, Civic Square, National Register of Historic Places, St. Michael's Episcopal Church (Charleston, S.C.), Church buildingsArchive Details
Archive Size/Extent
2 File FoldersArchive 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 BoxShelf
Prop File Shelves, Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentLocation
Container
PF Box 71Shelf
Prop File Shelves, Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentRelationships
Related Entries
Notes
2004.003.036, 2004.003.047, 2004.020.007.4, 2004.020.089, 2004.020.090, 2004.020.091, 2004.020.092, 2004.020.093, 2004.020.094, 2004.020.104, 2004.020.105, 2004.021.114, 2005.003.0132, 2005.003.0194, 2005.004.016, 2005.004.034, 2006.005.044, 2006.007.45, 2006.010.291-301, 2006.013.1A, 2007.020.8, 2011.022.90a-c, 2013.026.01-5, 2015.017.2, 2016.014.34, 2018.005.39, 2020.005.38a-i, MEETING.080.10, MEETING.080.11, MEETING.080.12a-c, MEETING.080.13, MEETING.080.14, MEETING.080.15, MEETING.080.16, MEETING.080.17a-f, MEETING.080.18a-d, MEETING.080.2, MEETING.080.3, MEETING.080.4, MEETING.080.5a-d, MEETING.080.6, MEETING.080.7, MEETING.080.8, MEETING.080.9
Related Units of Description: Photo reprints of architectural plans and drawings
Preservation Consultants files (drawings and plans, structural evaluation of steeple, conditions analysis), 2011.022.1Related Publications
Notes
Buildings of Charleston (see Abstract), pg. 184-185General Notes
Note
Notes: Photo in this record from Lanneau's Art Store Souvenir Photographs, 2006.013.1A .Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
June 18, 2010Updated By
admin@catalogit.appUpdate Date
February 16, 2023