Hibernian Hall | |
Location | 00+ Meeting St., Charleston, South Carolina |
---|---|
Coordinates | 32°46′38″N79°55′54″W / 32.77722°N 79.93167°W |
Built | 1840 |
Architectural style | Greek Revival |
Part of | Charleston Historic District (ID66000964) |
NRHP reference No. | 73001686 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | November 7, 1973 [1] |
Designated NHL | November 7, 1973 [2] |
Designated NHLDCP | October 9, 1960 |
Hibernian Hall is a historic meeting hall and social venue at 105 Meeting Street in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Built in 1840, it is Charleston's only architectural work by Thomas Ustick Walter, and a fine example of Greek Revival architecture. The wrought iron gates were made by Christopher Werner, a German-American master ironworker in Charleston.
The hall is nationally significant for its use during the 1860 Charleston Convention, in which the Democratic Party, divided by opinions on slavery, failed to select a presidential nominee, ensuring victory for the anti-slavery Republican Party in the 1860 presidential election. The building was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1973. [2] [3] The building continues to be used as a function and meeting space today.
Hibernian Hall is located at 105 Meeting Street, just north of the intersection of Meeting and Broad Street in central Charleston, an intersection known as the "Four Corners of Law". The hall was constructed in 1840 to a design by Thomas U. Walter of Philadelphia for the Hibernian Society of Charleston, an Irish benevolent society. This group had organized in 1801, made up largely of Irish immigrants. This is the only known work of Walter's in Charleston.
It is a two-story brick structure, clad in white-painted stucco, its principal architectural feature a Greek temple front with six Ionic columns, supporting an entablature and pediment. The architect modeled the columns and entablature on those of the Temple of Illisius. [4] Master artisan Christopher Werner crafted the iron gates. [5]
The classical effect was modified in the late 19th century by the addition of dentils and modillions to the cornice, and the insertion of an arched Italianate window into the tympanum of the pediment. These alterations were made during repairs and restoration after the building was damaged in the 1886 Charleston earthquake. [5]
Hibernian Hall is the only remaining building associated with the 1860 Democratic National Convention, one of the most critical political gatherings in United States history. The building served as convention headquarters for the faction of the Democratic Party supporting presidential candidate Stephen A. Douglas. The first floor was used as a meeting space, and the second floor as living quarters for the delegates, who slept on hundreds of cots set up for the occasion.[ citation needed ] None of the candidates could garner sufficient support, and the party's divisiveness contributed its defeat by the Republicans and Abraham Lincoln.
The 1860 United States presidential election was the 19th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1860. In a four-way contest, the Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin won a national popular plurality, a popular majority in the North where states already had abolished slavery, and a national electoral majority comprising only Northern electoral votes. Lincoln's election thus served as the main catalyst of the states that would become the Confederacy seceding from the Union. This marked the first time that a Republican was elected president. It was also the first presidential election in which both major party candidates were registered in the same home state; the others have been in 1904, 1920, 1940, 1944, and 2016.
The 1860 Democratic National Conventions were a series of presidential nominating conventions held to nominate the Democratic Party's candidates for president and vice president in the 1860 election.
Robert Barnwell Rhett was an American politician who served as a deputy from South Carolina to the Provisional Confederate States Congress from 1861 to 1862, a member of the US House of Representatives from South Carolina from 1837 to 1849, and US Senator from South Carolina from 1850 to 1852. As a staunch supporter of slavery and an early advocate of secession, he was a "Fire-Eater", nicknamed the "father of secession".
Drayton Hall is an 18th-century plantation house located on the Ashley River about 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Charleston, South Carolina, and directly across the Ashley River from North Charleston, west of the Ashley in the Lowcountry. An example of Palladian architecture in North America and the only plantation house on the Ashley River to survive intact through both the Revolutionary and Civil wars, it is a National Historic Landmark.
The Nathaniel Russell House is an architecturally distinguished, early 19th-century house at 51 Meeting Street in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Built in 1808 by wealthy merchant and slave trader Nathaniel Russell, it is recognized as one of the United States' most important neoclassical houses. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973.
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 enslaved people were sold, as enslaved people 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.
The William Gibbes House is a historic house at 64 South Battery in Charleston, South Carolina. Built about 1772, it is one of the nation's finest examples of classical Georgian architecture. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970.
The Fireproof Building, also known as the County Records Building, is located at 100 Meeting Street, at the northwest corner of Washington Square, in Charleston, South Carolina. Completed in 1827, it was the most fire-resistant building in America at the time, and is believed to be the oldest fire-resistant building in America today.
The James Petigru Boyce Chapel is a historic church building at 1306 Hampton Street in Columbia, South Carolina. It is a Greek Revival building built in 1859. A convention met here on December 17, 1860, whose delegates voted unanimously for South Carolina to secede from the United States, leading to the American Civil War. It was designated a National Historic Landmark as First Baptist Church, the role it played at the time. The building is part of the facilities complex of the First Baptist Church, Columbia- a Southern Baptist megachurch.
Hampton Plantation, also known as Hampton Plantation House and Hampton Plantation State Historic Site, is a historic plantation, now a state historic site, north of McClellanville, South Carolina. The plantation was established in 1735, and its main house exhibits one of the earliest known examples in the United States of a temple front in domestic architecture. It is also one of the state's finest examples of a wood frame Georgian plantation house. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970.
Edward Brickell White, also known as E. B. White, was an architect in the United States. He was known for his Gothic Revival architecture and his use of Roman and Greek designs.
The Playmakers Theatre, originally Smith Hall, is a historic academic building on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Built in 1850, it was designated a National Historic Landmark for its architecture, as an important example of Greek Revival architecture by Alexander Jackson Davis. It is now a secondary venue of the performing company, which is principally located at the Paul Green Theatre in the Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art.
The Colonel John Stuart House is a historic house at 104-106 Tradd Street in Charleston, South Carolina. Built in 1772, four years before the American Revolution, it is the city's oldest known example of a side-hall plan house. It is nationally significant as the home of Colonel John Stuart, who was the King's Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the South. He improved relations with the Five Civilized Tribes, especially the Cherokee Nation between the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973.
The Old Marine Hospital is a historic medical building at 20 Franklin Street in Charleston, South Carolina. Built 1831–33 to a design by Robert Mills, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973 for its association with Mills, and as a high-quality example of Gothic Revival architecture. The hospital was built as a public facility for the treatment of sick sailors and other transient persons.
St. Philip's Church is an historic church at 142 Church Street in Charleston, South Carolina. Its National Historic Landmark description states: "Built in 1836, this stuccoed brick church features an imposing tower designed in the Wren-Gibbs tradition. Three Tuscan pedimented porticoes contribute to this design to make a building of the highest quality and sophistication." On November 7, 1973, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark.
The First Church of Christ, Unitarian, also known as First Church of Lancaster and colloquially as "the Bulfinch Church", is a historic congregation with its meeting house located at 725 Main Street facing the Common in Lancaster, Massachusetts. The church's fifth meeting house, built in 1816, was designed by architect Charles Bulfinch, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977, recognizing it as one of Bulfinch's finest works.
The U.S. Post Office and Courthouse is a historic post office and courthouse located at Charleston in Charleston County, South Carolina. The building and its annexes serve the federal court for the Charleston Division of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Christopher W. Werner (1805–1875) was a nineteenth-century wrought iron manufacturer, artisan, and entrepreneur based in Charleston, South Carolina, US. He was one of three noted German-American ironworkers in Charleston, who created most of its high-quality wrought iron. He had immigrated from Prussia in his late 20s, already an accomplished businessman. In Charleston he married a young woman from England, another immigrant, and they had a family.
The Ripton Community House, formerly the Ripton Congregational Church, is a historic former church and present community hall on Vermont Route 125 in the village of Ripton, Vermont. Built in 1864 for a Congregationalist church, it has since served as a community clubhouse and town-owned meeting hall, and is a fine local example of vernacular Greek Revival architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Monkton Town Hall is a historic government building on Monkton Ridge Road in Monkton, Vermont. Built in 1859, it is a fine local example of Greek Revival architecture. For many years it was the site of town meetings, and it now houses the town offices. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.