Skip to main content
Menu Close Menu

Historic Columbia

Donate
  • FAQs
Upcoming Events

Navigation

  • Tours
    • House Tours
      • Robert Mills House and Gardens
      • Hampton-Preston Mansion and Gardens
      • Mann-Simons Site
      • The Museum of the Reconstruction Era
      • Modjeska Monteith Simkins House
      • Hours and Pricing
    • Garden Tours
      • Garden Database
    • Offsite Tours
      • Walking Tours
    • African American History Tours
    • Online Tours
  • Education
    • Field Trips
      • House Tours
    • Traveling Trunk
    • Summer Camp
    • Adult Education
  • Preservation
    • Current Projects and Initiatives
      • Bull Street Campus 
      • Columbia's Green Book Sites
      • Veterans Administration Regional Office
      • Women’s Club of Columbia
    • Preservation Awards
    • Resources for the Public
      • For Property Owners
      • For Neighborhoods
      • Take Action!
    • LGBTQ Columbia
  • Support
    • Corporate Support
    • Donate
    • Membership
    • Volunteer
    • Partners and Donors
  • Rent a Venue
    • Gardens of the Hampton-Preston Mansion
    • Seibels House and Garden
    • Robert Mills Carriage House and Gardens
    • Gardens of the Woodrow Wilson Family Home
    • Weddings
    • Photoshoots
    • Recommended Vendors
    • Contact Us
  • About
    • Blog
    • Board Members
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
    • Gift Shop at Robert Mills
      • Online Store
    • Local History
      • Columbia Jewish Heritage Initiative
    • Newsletter
    • Staff Directory

Donate

background image

State House Monuments Tour

Since Columbia’s 1786 founding, the grounds of the South Carolina State House have grown from a 4-acre site bounded by Richardson (Main), Gervais, Assembly, and Senate streets into a 22-acre complex featuring 7 buildings and more than 30 monuments. South Carolinians have constructed, altered, and reconsidered this space for more than 230 years—and continue to do so today. Over the last year, architectural historian Lydia Mattice Brandt, Ph.D. undertook a comprehensive survey of this built landscape. Her research serves as the basis for this new web-based tour, available below. If you would like to do your own research on the monuments (and to find out more from the sources used to create this website), visit our bibliography page.

These tours are made possible by

  • South Carolina Humanities organization logo
  • Richland County Conservation Commission organization logo

Historically Complex: The Podcast

What do the monuments represent? How can we know? Historically Complex, a new podcast, peels back the layers on the history represented at the South Carolina State House.

Stream the Episodes

Waypoints (34)

1/34

South Carolina State House

1200 Gervais Street

1100 Gervais Street
Constructed 1855-1907
Designed by John R. Niernsee (1854-1885); Francis (Frank) McHenry Niernsee (1888-1891); Frank P. Milburn (1900-1904); Charles C. Wilson (1904-1907)
Renovated 1995-1998

  • South Carolina State House, 2019. The Benjamin Ryan Tillman Monument can be seen in the foreground.

    South Carolina State House, 2019. The Benjamin Ryan Tillman Monument can be seen in the foreground. Historic Columbia collection

  • Postcard depicting the original State House (1794) and the current State House, seen here in 1936.

    Postcard depicting the original State House (1794) and the current State House, seen here in 1936. Image courtesy Postcards of the Midlands Collection, Richland Library

  • South Carolina State House, 1873.

    South Carolina State House, 1873. Historic Columbia collection, HCF 2005.8.2

  • South Carolina State House, 1908.

    Postcard depicting the South Carolina State House, 1908. Image courtesy South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia

  • Henry Kirke Bush-Brown Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

    Henry Kirke Bush-Brown Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

The current State House is the successor to an earlier, wood-frame, Georgian style building that stood closer to Assembly Street. Work began on the new State House in 1851. However, the foundation was determined to be defective and subsequently dismantled in 1854. After firing project architect Peter Hjalmar Hammarskold for fraud and dereliction of duty, the state hired Vienna-born John Rudolph Niernsee to revise the building’s plans and oversee the project’s completion. Work on today’s building 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 20-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 80 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. In 1970, Herbert Fielding, James Felder, and I.S. Leevy Johnson won election to the S.C. House of Representatives, the first African Americans to serve in the State House since 1902.

The exuberant interiors with cast iron details were installed in the 1880s and the porticos, steps, and dome 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.

As mentioned in Historically Complex: The Podcast

Introducing Historically Complex, a new podcast on the complicated histories of key monuments on the South Carolina State House grounds -- now available to stream and download on our website or your favorite podcast service!

Stream the Episodes

  • Load More

Newsletter Signup

newsletter signup

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter for events, news, and updates from Historic Columbia!

  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Flickr
Historic Columbia

© 2023 Historic Columbia

Administrative Offices
1601 Richland Street
Columbia, SC 29201

Tours
All historic house and garden tours start at the Gift Shop at Robert Mills.
1616 Blanding Street
Columbia, SC 29201

Questions? Call (803) 252-7742.

Website by Cyberwoven