Charleston City Hall, Charleston, Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

Charleston City Hall is the pale, neoclassical building at 80 Broad Street, on the corner of Broad and Meeting Streets in Charleston, South Carolina. It was built around 1800 as a branch of the First Bank of the United States and has housed city government since the late 1810s. It stands on the famous Four Corners of Law, one of the most photographed intersections in the city.

The story behind it

The building was designed by the Charleston architect Gabriel Manigault and completed in the early 1800s as a federal bank branch. That role did not last. By the end of the 1810s the city had taken over the building, and it has been the seat of local government ever since. The 1886 earthquake, which shook much of Charleston, damaged many buildings in the area, and this one needed repair like its neighbours.

The corner it sits on has its own nickname. At the crossing of Broad and Meeting, a church, the city hall, the county courthouse and the federal courthouse face one another, which is why locals call it the Four Corners of Law. The church is St. Michael's, whose cornerstone was laid in 1752 and which was completed in 1761, making it the oldest surviving church building in Charleston. George Washington worshipped there during his 1791 visit to the city, and the churchyard holds two signers of the U.S. Constitution, John Rutledge and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Inside City Hall hangs a portrait of Washington by John Trumbull, painted around that same visit, along with a portrait of James Monroe by Samuel Morse.

What to look for

• The pale, symmetrical classical facade of City Hall itself, which looks more like a bank than a council building because that is what it was designed to be.
• The four buildings meeting at the Broad and Meeting crossing, each representing a different layer of authority: city, county, federal and church.
• The tall white steeple of St. Michael's across the intersection, which has long served as a landmark for the harbour district.
• The boxed pews inside St. Michael's, including the one marked for George Washington, if the church is open to visitors.

Tips for your visit

• Allow 15 to 20 minutes to look at the exterior and the four corners, and more if you add the church and its graveyard.
• Morning or late afternoon light is kinder to the pale facade, and the crossing is usually calmer than at midday.
• City Hall is a working government building, so check current opening hours and visitor access before planning to go inside.
• Broad Street and Meeting Street are lined with other historic buildings, so it is easy to continue on foot from here.

See it on a quest

Seeing City Hall on its own takes a few minutes. Playing Murder Mystery: Death in the Shadows in Charleston makes it one stop on a longer walk through the area. The app tells you about each place as you reach it and sets a puzzle in what is in front of you. One ticket covers the whole group.

Ghost Hunt in Charleston suits anyone who likes their history with a darker edge. You walk between the sights on foot, hear about each one as you arrive and solve a puzzle on the spot. One ticket covers the whole group.

Charleston Detective Mystery: Infiltrate a Secret Society. is a detective-style walk past the buildings of the old city. You can start whenever you like, with no guide and no group to join. One ticket covers the whole group.