Monuments on the South Carolina State House Grounds
Monuments
on the South Carolina State House Grounds
Historically Complex: The Podcast
Introducing Historically Complex, a new podcast on the complicated histories of key monuments on the South Carolina State House grounds -- now available to stream and download on our website or your favorite podcast service!
Since Columbia’s founding in 1786, the grounds of the South Carolina State House have grown from a 4-acre site bounded by Richardson (Main), Gervais, Assembly, and Senate streets into a 22-acre complex featuring 7 buildings and more than 30 monuments. South Carolinians have constructed, altered, and reconsidered this space for more than 230 years—and continue to do so today. In 2019, architectural historian Lydia Mattice Brandt, Ph.D. undertook a comprehensive survey of this built landscape. Her research serves as the basis for this new web-based tour, available below. If you would like to do your own research on the monuments (and to find out more from the sources used to create this website), visit our bibliography page.
This project was made possible with generous support from
SC Humanities and the Richland County Conservation Commission.
Explore the Grounds
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Buildings & Landscape
City of Columbia Bicentennial Time Capsule
Capitol Complex Marker
Edgar A. Brown Building
John C. Calhoun State Office Building
L. Marion Gressette Building
Liberty Bell Replica
Old State House Marker
Rembert C. Dennis Building
Solomon Blatt Building
South Carolina State House
Tribute Grove
Wade Hampton State Office Building -
People
African American History Monument
Benjamin Ryan Tillman Monument
George Washington Monument
Grave of Swanson Lunsford
James Francis Byrnes Monument
Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway Marker
Monument to Dr. J. Marion Sims
Profiles of Robert Young Hayne and George McDuffie
Richardson Square Marker
Robert E. Lee Memorial Highway Marker
South Carolina Law Enforcement Memorial
Strom Thurmond Monument
Wade Hampton III Monument -
War
Gun from the USS Maine
Mount for Spanish Cannon
Palmetto Regiment Monument
Partisan Generals Monument
South Carolina Armed Forces Monument
South Carolina Monument to the Confederate Dead
South Carolina Monument to the Women of the Confederacy
Spanish American War Veterans Monument
Stars and Inscriptions on the State House
Historically Complex: The Podcast
What do the monuments represent? How can we know? Historically Complex, a new podcast, peels back the layers on the history represented at the South Carolina State House.