Waring Historical Library

Charleston maintained a City Hospital, primarily supported by appropriations from the City Council, located in a brick building that in antebellum days had been known as the Workhouse, at the corner of Mazyck and Magazine streets.

The night of the earthquake, the walls of the City Hospital crumbled and heavy buttresses fell to the ground. Two of the 125 patients were killed in the falling rubble. In the aftermath, bodies sprawled on doors and shutters torn from wrecked buildings for use as stretchers.

The earthquake provided Mayor William Ashmead Courtenay with the opportunity he wanted to remake the City Hospital, though the site chosen for the new building was on reclaimed marshland along the banks of the Ashley River. Construction on what became known as Memorial Hospital, at the corner of Lucas (now Jonathan Lucas) and Calhoun streets, began about six months after the earthquake. The old City Hospital was torn down early in 1887, and Memorial Hospital opened in 1888.

Visit our online exhibit "Faults and Fractures" to learn more: https://bit.ly/FaultsFractures

Pictured: Earthquake August 31, 1886. Displaced towers and coping of the City Hospital on the southwest corner of Luzon and Magazine streets. (Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library)

Visit the Macaulay Museum of Dental History during our museum open house next week and discover the history of dentistry in South Carolina from the late 19th century through the 1960s! Drop in any time between 11 Am and 1 PM!

📅 August 26, 2024
🕛 11 AM - 1 PM EST
📍 177 Ashley Ave.