South Carolina State House Grounds

South Carolina State House Grounds

A Guidebook

  • Autor: Brandt, Lydia Mattice; Yonkers, Chandler
  • Editor: University of South Carolina Press
  • ISBN: 9781643361789
  • eISBN Pdf: 9781643361796
  • Lloc de publicació:  South Carolina , United States
  • Any de publicació digital: 2021
  • Mes: Maig
  • DDC: 917.57/7104
  • Idioma: Anglés

The first comprehensive narrative of the South Carolina state capitol and the history enshrined in its monuments from 1787 to the present

The South Carolina State House grounds are a work in progress—a cultural landscape of human-built and natural components connected physically, conceptually, and aesthetically. As public property, the grounds should represent and welcome everyone in the state. While it is a beautiful space, it is not neutral. Over the past two centuries, various groups have jostled for political and cultural power, and the winners have used the grounds to assert their authority and broadcast political positions on the state's most visible stage. These struggles have resulted in a perpetually evolving space.

In The South Carolina State House Grounds, the first comprehensive narrative of this important site at the heart of the Palmetto State, Lydia Mattice Brandt details the history of the state capitol and its setting—including the national, state, and local histories enshrined in its monuments—from 1787 to the present. Brandt argues that generations of private citizens and elected officials, who recognized the power of erecting public monuments and buildings that recall certain versions of history, have consciously shaped this highly charged, visible, and public place to assert authority over both the past and present. By recounting the intentions behind each element in the landscape, this guidebook considers how South Carolinians have used this place as a site of storytelling and mythmaking.

The South Carolina State House Grounds, a chronological history of the state's grandest public space, includes more than sixty illustrations that track the site's transformation over more than two centuries. Brandt chronicles the events that occurred in and around its buildings, the stories of the people memorialized in the grounds' monuments, and the histories of the monuments themselves.

  • Cover
  • The South Carolina State House Grounds
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • A Brief Timeline of South Carolina History
  • Abbreviations
  • Map of the State House Grounds
  • Introduction: Defining the State House Grounds
  • One. Building and Challenging a Sovereign State House (1790–1877)
    • South Carolina State House
    • Swanson Lunsford Grave
    • George Washington Monument
    • Sculpture on the North Façade of the State House
    • Palmetto Monument
  • Two. Jim Crow and the State House Beautiful (1877–1968)
    • Plans for the State House Landscape
    • South Carolina Monument to the Confederate Dead (Confederate Monument)
    • Wade Hampton Monument
    • Partisan Generals Monument
    • Monument to the Women of the Confederacy (Confederate Women’s Monument)
    • Spanish-American War Monuments
    • James Marion Sims Monument
    • Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee Memorial Highway Markers
    • Memorial Trees on the State House Grounds
    • John C. Calhoun State Office Building
    • Wade Hampton State Office Building
    • Stars on the State House and Marker for the First State House
    • Benjamin Ryan Tillman Monument
    • Liberty Bell Replica
    • Confederate Battle Flag
  • Three. Building for Bureaucracy (1969–Present)
    • James Francis Byrnes Monument
    • Redesign of the State House Grounds
    • Capitol Complex Master Plan
    • Furman McEachern Jr. Parking Garage
    • Edgar A. Brown Building and Solomon Blatt Building
    • L. Marion Gressette Building
    • Rembert C. Dennis Building
    • Richardson Square Marker
    • Capitol Complex Marker
    • Columbia Bicentennial Time Capsule
    • Strom Thurmond Monument
    • African American History Monument
    • South Carolina Law Enforcement Memorial and South Carolina Armed Forces Monument
  • Appendix: Maps of the South Carolina State House Grounds, 1790–present
  • Abbreviations Used in Notes
  • Notes
  • Index
  • About the Author