page_title: City Market (Charleston, South Carolina)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: City Market (Charleston, South Carolina) / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Market Hall and Sheds - Aerial View, Looking Northwest Along Market Street (Center). - City Plan Of Charleston, Charleston, Charleston County, SC, United States
context_page_description: The City Market is a historic market complex in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Established in the 1790s, the market stretches for four city blocks from the architecturally-significant Market Hall, which faces Meeting Street, through a continuous series of one-story market sheds, the last of which terminates at East Bay Street. The market should not be confused with the Old Slave Mart where slaves were sold, as slaves were never sold in the City Market. The City Market Hall has been described as a building of the "highest architectural design quality." The entire complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Market Hall and Sheds and was further designated a National Historic Landmark.
  Initially known as the Centre Market, Charleston's City Market was developed as a replacement for the city's Beef Market building, which burned in 1796. Market Hall, designed by Charleston architect Edward B. White, was added in the early 1840s. Throughout the 19th century, the market provided a convenient place for area farms and plantations to sell beef and produce, and also acted as a place for locals to gather and socialize.
context_section_description: Charleston's first public market was established in 1692 at the corner of Broad and Meeting streets, although a formal brick building wasn't built at the site until 1739.  This first "Beef Market" was replaced by a more appealing structure in 1760, and within a short period, new markets for fish and general merchandise were established along Vendue (Queen) and Tradd streets.  In 1788, the family of Revolutionary War general Charles Cotesworth Pinckney donated a strip of recovered marshland for the establishment of the "Centre Market," which would stretch from the docks of Charleston Harbor all the way to Meeting Street.
  The first market sheds were erected around 1790, and gradually expanded to occupy most of the strip from the harbor to Meeting Street by 1806.  After the Beef Market building burned in 1796, Charleston's beef market was shifted to the Centre Market.  In its early days, the market was primarily a place to sell foodstuffs, and was subdivided into sections for beef, fish, and farm produce.  The market was also a social center, where the city's lower and middle class residents could gather for drinking and playing games.  Vultures, which kept the market clean by eating discarded meat scraps, were a common sight at the market into the 20th century and were protected by law.
  In 1838, a fire destroyed the market's head-house, and the city enlisted local architect Edward B. White (1806–1882) to design the current head-house, Market Hall, which was completed in 1841.  The upper room of the hall initially served as a large assembly room, and later as a military recruiting office at the outbreak of the Civil War.
  In 1899, the United Daughters of the Confederacy Chapter 4 began using Market Hall to house the Confederate Museum, which displayed Confederate artifacts and other items from the city's Civil War period.  The museum closed in 1989 after Market Hall suffered substantial damage during Hurricane Hugo (including the partial removal of its roof), and was later reopened after having been temporarily housed in a Charleston kindergarten.
   By the early days of the twentieth century, the number of food merchants using the Market had dropped dramatically.  In January 1901, the Charleston City Council took up the matter, and a report was endorsed to replace the market sheds between East Bay (to the east) and Anson Street (to the west) with a small park to reinvigorate the area. While proponents of this action argued it would save taxpayer money on upkeep of the aging structures, a special committee of City Council reversed course following criticism from historical preservationists. The same matter cropped up again at a City Council meeting on November 8, 1904, when a motion was adopted calling for the demolition of the market sheds between East Bay and Anson to be replaced with grounds laid out in "an ornamental fashion." The debate about the future of the structures remained alive through mid-1905 when City Council considered letters in support of saving the buildings as unique examples of their architecture in America.  Preservationists suggested preserving the buildings as a covered walkway, or converting the final building (from East Bay to State Street)  into a public bath house. Business leaders, on the other hand, suggested the city demolish the Market and replace it with a freight station in a petition submitted to City Council in August 1905. Finally, on September 12, 1905, the special committee investigating the options submitted a report to City Council which called for whitewashing the walls of the eastern sheds, removing the woodwork inside, and converting the sheds into a covered walkway until another use might be developed. The work on the eastern buildings began in December 1906, and the remaining buildings were reorganized to collect meat vendors together along the northern side with fruit and vegetable vendors along the south.
  On the morning of 29 September 1938, a series of tornadoes swept through Charleston, killing 32, injuring 100, and destroying $2 million in property. One tornado extensively da
caption: Aerial view of the market
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