Carolina Rifles Armory

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The Carolina Rifles Armory at 158-160 King St., Charleston, South Carolina 160 King.jpg
The Carolina Rifles Armory at 158-160 King St., Charleston, South Carolina

The Carolina Rifles Armory at 158-160 King St., Charleston, South Carolina, was a late 19th-century headquarters for a semi-private military group, but today only the façade remains, facing an annex for the Charleston Library Society.

Charleston, South Carolina City in the United States

Charleston is the oldest and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston–Summerville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline and is located on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean formed by the confluence of the Ashley, Cooper, and Wando rivers. Charleston had an estimated population of 134,875 in 2017. The estimated population of the Charleston metropolitan area, comprising Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties, was 761,155 residents in 2016, the third-largest in the state and the 78th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States.

Charleston Library Society

Charleston Library Society, founded in 1748, is a subscription library in Charleston, South Carolina.

The Carolina Rifles were a semi-private military group organized in 1869 during Reconstruction when armed military units were banned. The group ostensibly served social functions but was also expected by Confederate veterans to serve extra-police purposes. After the election of Gov. Wade Hampton, the organizations became legal, and the group reconstituted itself as the Carolina Rifles. They purchased 158-160 King St. as their armory in 1888. Construction was under way in 1889, and the Carolina Rifles were in their new headquarters by 1890. The building had commercial space on the ground floor, and the Carolina Rifles used the second floor. [1] By 1989, when Hurricane Hugo came ashore, the building was in poor shape, and all but its intricate façade was destroyed in the storm. The neighboring Charleston Library Society bought the building so that it could expand, and a reconstruction of a building behind the façade began in November 1994. [2]

Hurricane Hugo Category 5 Atlantic hurricane in 1989

Hurricane Hugo was a powerful Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread damage and loss of life in Guadeloupe, Saint Croix, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, and the Southeast United States. It formed over the eastern Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands on September 9, 1989. Hugo moved thousands of miles across the Atlantic, rapidly strengthening to briefly attain Category 5 hurricane strength on its journey. It later crossed over Guadeloupe, St. Croix and St. Thomas on September 17 and 18 as a Category 4 hurricane. Weakening slightly more, it passed over Puerto Rico as a strong Category 3 hurricane. Further weakening occurred several hours after re-emerging into the Atlantic, becoming downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane. However, it re-strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane before making landfall just slightly north of Charleston, on Isle of Palms on September 22, with 140 mph sustained winds. Hugo had weakened into a remnant low near Lake Erie by the next day. As of 2016, Hurricane Hugo is the most intense tropical cyclone to strike the East Coast north of Florida since 1898.

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References

  1. Stockton, Robert (December 19, 1977). "'Carolina Rifles' Built King St. Armory". Charleston News & Courier. pp. B1. Retrieved November 21, 2013.
  2. Behre, Robert (December 8, 1994). "Library society has plans for facade". Charleston Post & Courier. pp. B4. Retrieved November 23, 2013.

Coordinates: 32°46′41″N79°55′58″W / 32.778162°N 79.932830°W / 32.778162; -79.932830

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.