SCOVG20 digital edition-1 - Flipbook - Page 42
Charleston Turns 350
VISIT IN 2020 TO SEE
HISTORY COME TO LIFE
BY CHRISTINE STEELE
Known for its Southern
hospitality, colorful historic
row houses, stand-out
culinary scene and dizzying array of church steeples, the city of Charleston
tells a story that begins
even before the country
was formed. As the Holy
City celebrates its 350th
birthday, here are a few
milestones to help you
get to know her.
1770
1783
Founded in 1770 by three future signers of both the Declaration of Independence and
the U.S. Constitution, it is the oldest college in South Carolina, the 13th oldest institution
of higher learning in the U.S., and the oldest municipal college in the country.
More than 100 years after King Charles II sent English settlers to the area,
the settlement chose its permanent name.
THE COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON
1 65 0
1 700
1800
1 750
1670
1773
1816
The first permanent European settlement in South Carolina was
founded more than 100 years before the colonies declared their
independence from Britain. The birthplace of South Carolina is
now a state historic site with gardens, a zoo and walking trails.
A special committee of the Charlestown Library
Society founded the country’s first public museum,
which opened in 1824 and hired the first woman to
direct a publicly-funded art museum in America.
The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church was the
first independent black denomination in the U.S., and is the
oldest AME church in the South. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at
the church at the height of the Civil Rights movement in 1962.
CHARLES TOWNE LANDING
40
SETTLEMENT RENAMED “CHARLESTON”
THE CHARLESTON MUSEUM
EMANUEL AME CHURCH
DiscoverSouthCarolina.com
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