Name/Title
135 Meeting Street (Gibbes Memorial Art Gallery / Gibbes Museum of Art)Entry/Object ID
MEETING.135.1Scope and Content
Constructed ca. 1905; addition 1978. Frank P. Milburn, architect. Frank P. Milburn, an architect whose practice was centered in Charlotte, NC, and Columbia, SC, but who was influential from Washington southward, designed the Gibbes Memorial Art Gallery, Charleston's best example of the Beaux Arts style. In addition to participating in the design of the Gibbes, Milburn, as an architect for the Southern Railway, designed train stations throughout the South. H.T. Zacharias served as contractor for the gallery, which opened on April 11, 1905. The engaged front portico stands on a ground story entry with stylized rustication, while a dome topped by pantile shaped copper shingles, surrounded by a bronze anthemion border, rises from the parapeted flat roof. A contemporary rear addition of gray stucco with large tinted glass openings was completed in 1978. The Carolina Art Association -- founded in 1857, disbanded during the Civil War, and reorganized in 1878 -- operated out of an art school in the Bible Depository Building at 22 Chalmers Street. A bequest of $100,000 from the estate of the Charleston businessman James Shoolbred Gibbes to the city, under the direction of the progressive mayor J. Adger Smyth and the Association, provided the necessary funding for construction of the new James S. Gibbes Memorial Art Gallery. The museum houses not only a definitive collection of early portraits, paintings, and miniatures related to Charleston and the Lowcountry, but contemporary works as well. (Poston, Buildings of Charleston.)
File contains newspaper articles (1962 and undated DYKYC); captioned newspaper photo of Meeting Street, 1917; photocopy of 1903 illustration of front elevation; 1995 HCF memorandum regarding brick paving; captioned photograph of 133 Meeting Street, site of the first offices of The Evening Post, from Charleston Come Hell or High Water; entry from the1904 City Yearbook "The James S. Gibbes Memorial Art Gallery"; Also includes reprint of article "The Carolina Art Association: Its First Hundred Years," by Harold A. Mouzon (originally published SC Historical Magazine, July 1958).Collection
Historic Charleston Foundation Property RecordsAcquisition
Accession
MEETING.135.Source or Donor
135 Meeting Street (Gibbes Memorial Art Gallery)Acquisition Method
Collected by StaffLexicon
Search Terms
Meeting Street, Gibbes Museum of Art (Charleston, S.C.), Museum buildings--South Carolina--Charleston, Art museums--South Carolina--Charleston, 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 72Shelf
Prop File Shelves, Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentLocation
Container
2Shelf
Prop File Shelves, Property File ShelvesRoom
Margaretta P. Childs ArchivesBuilding
Missroon HouseCategory
PermanentRelationships
Related Entries
Notes
2006.010.332-334, 2009.010.1.29, 2009.013.09, 2016.014.02, MEETING.135.2a-bRelated Publications
Notes
Buildings of Charleston (see Abstract), pg. 491General Notes
Note
Notes: Image from postcard collection, 2009.013.09 (digital only).Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
July 7, 2010Updated By
admin@catalogit.appUpdate Date
February 17, 2023