200 Meeting Street
City Directories and History: NATIONS BANK PLACE / Charleston Hotel
Constructed 1989-90 Aubry Architects; SBF Design
“Designed by a Florida architectural firm in the modern classical style, this large bank building with a raised multi-story portico hearkens back to its predecessor on this site. This was the
location from 1838 to 1960 of the great Charleston Hotel, a magnificent Greek Revival structure with giant order Corinthian columns probably designed by the Prussian-born architect Charles F. Reichardt. The demolition of the hotel in 1960 for a motor inn (now removed) remains a dark memory for many Charleston preservationists.”
Information from: The Buildings of Charleston – J.H. Poston for the Historic Charleston Foundation, 1997
LETTER TO SPRINGFIELD PLANTATION: 20 January 1851. From John Springs III, living in Charleston Hotel, Charleston, SC wrote to his son, Andrew Baxter Springs, Fort Mill, York District, Springfield Plantation: “.. . . I have known Monroe White’s place three score years and ever since I can recollect anything, it has passed through a great many hands, and I do not think any one has much profits it and it once had a much more extensive custom, especially in a dry season , but not so of late years, a severed drought now stops it, the pond having become filled up by the wash. The seat has got washed out and now requiring a wide dam, which has always been subject to break in all large freshets, and has only been kept up by much labor and a heavy cost, ten times the amount it has taken to keep the Harrisburg. I have on the whole viewed it as rather a bad property, could have owned it long since if I had thought otherwise. “You say you have bought the Wm. Kimbrell place for $350.1 think it is a low price, but what use can you make of it? You can’t keep it up nor work its old fields and more cut and if you were to hold it ten years and not double your money it would be a bad purchase. The simple interest would be $24….. The woodland attached to Whites mill place on the east side of Steel Creek is productive, well-timbered and good would produce cotton well a few years but is broken and would not last long. I would not like to discourage enterprise, but can’t be brought to think well of speculating in those old cut down lands, some of the worst investments I ever made have been in that way.391 merely volunteer my opinion (but you must act for yourself) and they have sometimes been erroneous but mostly on the safe time. I would not venture an opinion as to the value of Whites mill and place, but would advise that you pause and reflect soberly, before you make an offer. Think you have enough on your hands for the present with your Plantation and RR.” Wylie A. Glover, overseer for Andrew Baxter Springs on Springfield Plantation, Fort Mill. Courtesy of the YCGHS, June 2002
R&R Note: Not only were the Springses one of the wealthiest of S.C. planters and businessmen, but they also were heavily involved in bringing the Charlotte and Augusta Railroad to upcountry S.C. It is unclear as to why John Springs in living at the Charleston Hotel but he appears to have done so for an extended period.
Other sources of interest: Charleston Tax Payers of Charleston, SC in 1860-61 and the Dwelling Houses of Charleston by Alice R.H. Smith – 1917 The HCF may also have additional data at: Past Perfect and further research can be uncovered at: Charleston 1861 Census Schedule or The Charleston City Guide of 1872
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