Fireproof Building
About this property
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. After an extensive renovation, the building reopened in 2018 as the South Carolina Historical Society Museum. The Fireproof Building is a two-story masonry structure, set on a tall stone basement with an arcade of round-arch openings and built out brick that has been stuccoed to resemble stone. The building is in the Greek Revival style, with Doric porticoes north and south, and achieves a sophisticated appearance with clean and crisp lines, and relatively little ornamentation. Inside, the building has an oval stair hall lit by a cupola. The stone stairs are cantilevered through three stories. The building was built to house the office and records of Charleston County. The contractor, John G. Spidle, built it in 1827 to the design of Robert Mills, the nation's first domestically-trained architect and an early advocate of fire-resistant buildings. The Fireproof Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969, and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973. The building is currently the home of the South Carolina Historical Society. In 2016-17 the society completed a major renovation intended to modernize all systems, to provide a secure, climate controlled environment for the storage of historic documents, and to provide both an events venue and modern museum space. In the summer of 2018 the society reopened the building as a museum dedicated to the history of South Carolina and to the history of the Fireproof Building itself. List of National Historic Landmarks in South Carolina National Register of Historic Places listings in Charleston, South Carolina Fireproof Building, Charleston County (100 Meeting St., Charleston), including 7 photos, at South Carolina Department of Archives and History Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. SC-13-2, "County Records Building, 100 Meeting Street (at Chalmers Street), Charleston, Charleston County, SC", 27 photos, 1 color transparency, 8 measured drawings, 5 data pages, 3 photo caption pages, supplemental material Historic Charleston's Religious and Community Buildings, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary Robert P. Stockton, Information for Guides of Historic Charleston, South Carolina 350 (1985).
Location
Categories
Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Fireproof Building listed on the National Register?
Fireproof Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 28, 1969.
What type of historic resource is Fireproof Building?
Fireproof Building is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
Is Fireproof Building a National Historic Landmark?
Yes. Fireproof Building has been designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL), the highest level of federal recognition for historic properties in the United States.
What is the period of significance for Fireproof Building?
The period of significance for Fireproof Building is recorded as the industrial era.
Can I research the history near Fireproof Building?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Fireproof Building will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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