The South Carolina State House Grounds: A Guidebook

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.

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The South Carolina State House Grounds: A Guidebook

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.

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The South Carolina State House Grounds: A Guidebook

The South Carolina State House Grounds: A Guidebook

The South Carolina State House Grounds: A Guidebook

The South Carolina State House Grounds: A Guidebook

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Overview

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.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781643361796
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Publication date: 05/25/2021
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 192
File size: 16 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Lydia Mattice Brandt is an architectural historian, historic preservationist, associate professor of art history at the University of South Carolina, and host of the podcast Historically Complex. She is the author of First in the Homes of His Countrymen: George Washington's Mount Vernon in the American Imagination and many articles published in Winterthur Portfolio, Antiques&Fine Art, and the Public Historian.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

A Brief Timeline of South Carolina History ix

Abbreviations xiii

Map of the State House Grounds xiv

Introduction: Denning the State House Grounds 1

1 Building and Challenging a Sovereign State House (1790-1877) 7

South Carolina State House 9

Swanson Lunsford Grave 17

George Washington Monument 19

Sculpture on the North Facade of the State House 24

Palmetto Monument 29

2 Jim Crow and the State House Beautiful (1877-1968) 34

Plans for the State House Landscape 36

South Carolina Monument to the Confederate Dead (Confederate Monument) 43

Wade Hampton Monument AG Partisan Generals Monument 51

Monument to the Women of the Confederacy (Confederate Women's Monument) 54

Spanish-American War Monuments 58

James Marion Sims Monument 64

Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee Memorial Highway Markers 67

Memorial Trees on the State House Grounds 71

John C. Calhoun State Office Building 74

Wade Hampton State Office Building 77

Stars on the State House and Marker for the First State House 78

Benjamin Ryan Tillman Monument 82

Liberty Bell Replica 86

Confederate Battle Flag 87

3 Building for Bureaucracy (1969-Present) so James Francis Byrnes Monument 93

Redesign of the State House Grounds 96

Capitol Complex Master Plan 99

Furman McEachern Jr. Parking Garage 104

Edgar A. Brown Building and Solomon Blatt Building 106

L. Marion Gressette Building 108

Rembert C. Dennis Building 110

Richardson Square Marker 113

Capitol Complex Marker 114

Columbia Bicentennial Time Capsule 115

Strom Thurmond Monument 117

African American History Monument 120

South Carolina Law Enforcement Memorial and South Carolina Armed Forces Monument 125

Appendix: Maps of the South Carolina State House Grounds, 1790-present 131

Abbreviations Used in Notes 137

Notes 139

Index 171

What People are Saying About This

Dell Upton

The South Carolina State House Grounds sets a new standard for guidebooks. Brandt offers insightful histories of individual monuments and charts changes in the capitol's landscape to illuminate the state's political and social history. Brandt brings alive the State House Grounds in a way that will reward even those readers who have never visited them.

John M. Bryan

This is the definitive book about the State House grounds. Thoroughly researched and readable entries focusing upon each monument make the park-like setting meaningful.

Catherine W. Bishir

Brandt provides a fresh understanding of South Carolina's prime public space. This well-written and well-illustrated study will be valuable not only to the state's citizens and visitors but also for people thinking about public spaces far and wide.

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