Charleston County

In the 1950s, after years of declining enrollments as public schools gained broad acceptance, Porter Academy faced a grave crisis. Officials sold off assets such as football uniforms and jettisoned the military and high school departments just to survive.

Published in Charleston, the Post and Courier is the oldest daily newspaper in South Carolina.

The Powder Magazine was built on the northern edge of the walled city by 1713. Currently located at 21 Cumberland Street, it is considered to be the oldest surviving secular building in the Carolinas.

Since 1984, Powell has written eight novels and collections of short stories. His early fiction is set in the newly urbanized South and peopled with recognizable southern characters.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Pratt organized the “Jordan Grays” and was mustered into service of the state of Georgia in November 1861.

Founded in 1920, the Preservation Society of Charleston is the oldest community-based historic preservation organization in the United States.

The colonists first learned of this purported slave conspiracy on May 20, 1720, when a black man named Andrew addressed the South Carolina Commons House.

Back in Charleston, Pringle turned his energies from trade to public service. Early in his career he had served on the vestry of St. Philip’s Church, and as churchwarden he oversaw the distribution of aid after the disastrous Charleston fire of 1740.

In 1686 the Lords Proprietors ordered an investigation of charges that Quary had aided pirates while serving as governor.

The vibrant pastel paint colors applied to the exterior of neglected buildings between 79 and 107 East Bay Street became one of the earliest and most potent symbols of Charleston’s emerging preservation movement.

Rainey was the first black man to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 1789 Ramsay was among the founders of the Medical Society of South Carolina, and he was elected its president in 1797.

With the introduction of universal manhood suffrage in 1867, Randolph joined in Reconstruction politics as an active Republican. He rose rapidly through the leadership ranks. He represented Orangeburg County in the 1868 constitutional convention.

In 1868 Ransier represented Charleston County in the constitutional convention. He pursued a moderate course, favoring the Reverend Richard H. Cain’s petition to Congress appealing for funds to provide land to the freedmen.

Ravenel is possibly the best example of the influence of the Poetry Society of South Carolina on local writers; its founding in the year of her husband’s death brought her into a poetry-conscious environment.

In 1980 Ravenel served as U.S. associate deputy secretary of commerce and was the Democratic Party’s candidate for the First Congressional District seat.

After helping to establish the Medical College of South Carolina in 1824, Ravenel served as its professor of chemistry and pharmacy and, later, as dean.

Though she wrote poetry, brief essays, and stories on other subjects, Ravenel’s major works focused on southern history and manners.

It is her work at Algonquin Books, however, for which Ravenel is renowned in American letters. In 1982 she and her former teacher Louis Rubin established Algonquin in Chapel Hill. Her first position there was senior editor and member of the board of directors; through the years she progressed to editorial director and vice president.

Investigating the marl deposits along the Cooper River, Ravenel ascertained that the marl could be converted into lime. In 1856 he secured a patent to use carbonate of lime for the production of artificial stone, and a year later he established the first stone lime works in the state at Stony Landing, which would go on to supply most of the lime used by the Confederacy.