South Carolina Department of Archives and History
National Register Properties in South Carolina

Porter Military Academy, Charleston County (175-181 Ashley Ave., Charleston)
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Waring Library Colcock Hall
Facade
Colcock Hall
Right Oblique
Colcock Hall
Right Elevation
Colcock Hall
Right Rear
Oblique
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Colcock Hall
Left Rear
Oblique
Colcock Hall
Left Elevation
Colcock Hall
Left Oblique
St. Luke's Chapel
Facade
St. Luke's Chapel
Left Oblique
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St. Luke's Chapel
Left Elevation
St. Luke's Chapel
Rear Left
Oblique
St. Luke's Chapel
Right Rear
Oblique

The Porter Military Academy property has served as an early burial ground, a United States Arsenal, a Confederate munitions foundry and weapons factory, a chapel, a school classroom building, and a school library. Its association with major events in Charleston’s early history, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and with important individuals give the property importance on numerous levels. The former artillery shed from the original range of the Arsenal dates from the late 1820s and was renovated into a Chapel, presently known as St. Luke’s, in the 1880s through the vision of the founder of Porter Military Academy, Dr. A. Toomer Porter, and the work of Holten Bell, a prominent African-American builder. Much of the nineteenth century brick wall surrounding the complex is the work of the latter contractor. Colcock Hall, a two-story brick building constructed in 1862, is one of two known buildings in South Carolina constructed by the Confederate government for military uses. The Waring Library, formerly known as the Hoffman Library, is a unique example in South Carolina of an octagonal, Gothic Revival edifice designed by a prominent New York architect, John Butler Snook, for the Porter Military Academy with the influence of its donor, Reverend Charles Frederick Hoffman, a leading clergyman in New York City was built in 1894. The whole site in its present form is also significant for its association with Dr. Porter, a leading clergyman and educator in nineteenth century Charleston and an important figure in its antebellum and postbellum society. Listed in the National Register June 21, 1996.

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