Name/Title
State Capitol BuildingEntry/Object ID
2018.6.42Description
Postcard depicting the South Carolina State Capitol Building. The image shows a granite building with columns and a large staircase in the front. The building is topped with a gold dome and an American flag. Other buildings and trees are seen in the distance, along with a blue sky filled with clouds. The top lefthand corner of the postcard reads, "State Capitol Building, Columbia, S.C." The top righthand corner includes the number "20," and the bottom righthand notes "73981."
The back of the postcard includes a brief description of the building: "State Capitol begun in 1854, work held up during war between the States. Completed in 1903. Scars of Sherman’s cannonading may be seen on the West Side. Several Monuments located on the grounds. Confederate relic room located within. Built of granite, quarried in the present city limits of Columbia." A center stripe acknowledges the publisher: "PUB. BY COLUMBIA CIGAR & TOBACCO CO., COLUMBIA, S.C." The postcard contains no written message and was never mailed.Subject
State Capitol Building, Columbia, S.C.Subject Person/Organization
South Carolina State HouseSubject Place
City
Columbia, South CarolinaContext
The current State House is the successor to an earlier, wood-frame, Georgian style building that stood closer to Assembly Street. Work began on a new State House in 1851. However, the foundation was determined to be defective and subsequently dismantled in 1854. Work on today’s building, located at 1100 Gervais Street, began in 1855 with between 375 and 500 men, about 60% of whom were enslaved African Americans, and many others Irish immigrants, cutting and hauling stones from a quarry near the Congaree River. Their efforts ceased in 1861 with the start of the Civil War.
When Union forces converged on Columbia in February 1865, the unfinished State House was an easy target for Union cannoneers who bombarded it from the west bank of the Congaree River. Today, six bronze stars mark places where shells from their twenty-pound Parrott guns damaged the granite walls. The intense fire that destroyed the neighboring wooden State House also cracked the basement cornice and quoins in the southwestern corner of the new State House.
In 1869, a temporary roof allowed the government—the only African American majority state legislature in the history of the United States—to finally occupy the building for the first time. More than eighty African Americans served as legislators from 1868 through 1877. After Reconstruction ended, Black people were systematically eliminated from government and businesses throughout the South, especially in South Carolina.
The building's porticos, steps, and dome were finished at the turn of the century. Difficulties with financing and personnel plagued the building throughout its construction and the legislature declared its square footage inadequate as early as 1869, necessitating the state office buildings on the south side of Senate Street. The state legislature still meets in the historic building.Postcard Details
Publisher
Columbia Cigar & Tobacco CompanyDate Published
circa 1945Dimensions
Height
3-1/2 inWidth
5-1/2 in
