U.S. Arsenal, Artillery Shed, 167 Ashley Avenue, Charleston

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS SC,10-CHAR,183C-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

altered. PART I. HISTORICAL INFORMATION .1. Original and Subsequent Owners: United States Government; granted to Trustees of the Holy Communion Church Institute by joint resolution of Congress, December 19, Name changed to Porter Academy in Sold to Medical College of South Carolina, August 30, ^P 2. Bate of Erection: Mid-19th century 3. Notes on Original Plan and Construction: Apparently rectan- gular, with open arcading. 4- Notes on Known Alterations and Additions: Roof removed, walls raised four feet, new open-timber truss roof added, stained glass windows installed, in In recent times the interior orientation was reversed, concrete floor in- stalled. 5. Sources of Information: A. Toomer Porter, Led On (New York: G. P.

Putnam's Sons, News and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina, August Jl, UNITED STATES ARSENAL ARTILLERY SHED (NOW PORTER ACADEMY CHAPSL) HABS No. (Page 2) PART II. ARCHITECTURAL INFORMATION A. General Statement 1. Architectural character: A utilitarian building ingeniously converted into a chapel of the late century, 2. Condition of fabric: Good. B. Detailed Description of Exterior 1. Number of stories and bays? over-all dimensions, layout: One story; five bays long; about main portion; rectangular, with two small end pavilions on one side. 2. Wall construction: Red brick. 3. Structural system, framing: Load bearing brick walls? open-timber roof with scissors trusses. 4.

Openings: Openings with semi elliptical arches formerly extended to floor leve ; most have been converted to windows by filling in lower portion with brick; two on the east wall have been filled completely. # a. Doors and doorways: One door opens to Bee Street on the north, two open on the south to the campus. The southwest door is apparently modern, iiserted into an arched opening. The other two are set, in plain rectangular openings, and appear older; they have four-panel doors. b. Windows: Elliptical-headed windows have three wooden mullions and are glased with colored glass, mostly in geometrical patterns. Three windows on east wall, the one in the center being largest, have pointed (two-centered) arches. vSeveral memorial windows bear dates varying from the to 5. Roof: a.

Shape, covering: Gable roof of high pitch, covered with modern composition shingles* b. Cornice: Simple wooden cornice. c. Gable: A cross surmounts the east gable. UNITED STATES ARSENAL ARTILLERY (NOW PORTER ACADEMY CHAPEL) HABS No. (Page 3) C. Technical Description of Interior 1. Floor plans: Rectangular nave, with platform and altar at eastern end, adjoined by an alcove serving as organ room and sacristy. A small chaplain's office projects at the southwest corner. The original orientation appears to have been just the opposite, with altar at the we&t end. 2. Flooring: Modern concrete floor in three descending levels, and raised platform at the east end. 3. Wall and ceiling finish: Wainscoting of vertical boards? plastered above. There is a simple bracketed wooden cornice.

The roof construction is exposed. 4. Furniture: A row of benches with paneled ends on each side of a center aisle. D. Site: This building occupies the northeast corner of the Academy campus? being on the sidewalk line of Ashley Avenue and Bee Street. Prepared by Harley J. McKee? Architect National Park Service August