South Carolina State Capitol!

What Is the South Carolina State Capitol?

It’s the South Carolina State House!

What Makes It Historical?

The South Carolina State Capitol building actually got its start as the storage space for its predecessor! See, after the capital moved to Columbia from Charleston in 1786, the first state house here was made of wood, which was in major disrepair by the 1840s! To preserve public records, the legislature brought on architect, P.H. Hammarskold, to design a fireproof building for storing these records, and well, he didn’t do a great job. In June of 1854, the state replaced him with Major John R. Niernsee, who tore down the previous structure and started from scratch with the fireproof building now meant to be one of the capitol’s wings!

Mr. Niernsee meant to finish the capitol building within 5 years, but then war came to South Carolina. General Sherman, on his march to the sea, burned Columbia, along with the inside of the new state house, its library, and 25 years’ worth of Mr. Niernsee’s work! Impoverished by the war, South Carolina didn’t touch its state house building for another 23 years, and when it did, it came back to Mr. Niernsee with a request to start over, from scratch, while his health was failing!

The state couldn’t fund his ideas, and after Mr. Niernsee died, the project turned over to his associate, James Crawford Neilson, then to Frank Niernsee, then to Frank P. Milburn. Mr. Milburn’s work was controversial, so much so that Senator John Q. Marshall sued him over his departure from the Niernsee drawings! The State of South Carolina vs. McIlvain, et al. ended in a mistrial, and this third South Carolina State Capitol building was declared complete in 1903, almost fifty years after construction started!

How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?

Volunteer with South Carolina State Parks!
Donate to South Carolina State Parks!
Be a responsible visitor! Please respect the signs and pathways, and treat all structures and artifacts with respect. They’ve endured a lot to survive into the present. They’ll need our help to make it into the future!