Qualla: South Carolina State House

South Carolina State House: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brandon Davis, Public domain. Look for the stars first. Six bronze stars are embedded in the western wall of the South Carolina State House, set into the granite by the state itself, marking the spots where Union artillery shells struck the building on February 17, 1865. They are deliberate scars, polished and signed. The capitol that stands today was not yet finished when Sherman's army arrived and Columbia burned. Construction had begun in 1851 and would not be complete for another 56 years. The bronze stars mark a moment in that long building - a moment when the new capitol survived, but the old one across town did not.

Image: Brandon Davis | Public domain

South Carolina State House: Two State Houses, One City

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dima Sergiyenko; Please attribute this image as the work of "DiscoverWithDima.", CC BY-SA 4.0. The first South Carolina State House was completed in 1790 to a design by James Hoban, an Irish immigrant who had landed in Charleston after the Revolution. Hoban's work in Columbia caught the attention of Henry Laurens, who recommended him to President Washington. Washington hir...

Image: Dima Sergiyenko; Please attribute this image as the work of "DiscoverWithDima." | CC BY-SA 4.0

South Carolina State House: Half a Century of Construction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PegasusRacer28, CC BY-SA 4.0. Construction on the current State House began in 1851 under P. H. Hammarskold. He was dismissed for fraud. The half-built structure was then largely dismantled because of defective materials. John Niernsee took over in 1855 and worked through the Civil War interruption; his son F...

Image: PegasusRacer28 | CC BY-SA 4.0

South Carolina State House: The Grounds and the Arguments

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit KDTW Flyer, CC BY-SA 4.0. The grounds carry more arguments than any other state capitol's. The 1879 South Carolina Monument to the Confederate Dead was unveiled before 15,000 people, an early example of Lost Cause commemoration. It went up on the State House grounds only after Reconstruction ended and the...

Image: KDTW Flyer | CC BY-SA 4.0

South Carolina State House: Monuments to Reckoning

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LostNarwal, CC BY-SA 4.0. Other monuments still demand argument. The Benjamin Tillman statue, dedicated 1940, honors a senator who openly advocated terror against Black voters during Reconstruction; protestors have called for its removal. The Dr. J. Marion Sims monument honors a pioneer of gynecology who ...

Image: LostNarwal | CC BY-SA 4.0

South Carolina State House: Captain Lunsford's Grave

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Buried on the State House grounds is Captain Swanson Lunsford, a Virginia-born Revolutionary War officer who died in 1799. He once owned the land. His descendants erected a marker over his grave in 1953. The Palmetto Monument - cast iron and copper, made by Christopher Werner in ...

Image: Public domain