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Archive Record


Object Type Property File
Title 44-48 Broad Street
Scope & Content The present building, address 46 Broad Street and known as the Citizens and Southern Bank Building, was constructed ca. 1920; Otto Olaf, architect. It has a monumental portico, supported by fluted Ionic columns. With bracketed window surrounds, it still serves as a bank and is one of Charleston's few Neoclassical Revival style public edifices. Otto Olaf, the architect, was also a civil engineer and designer of the Savannah River Bridge. The real importance for this location lies with the bank's predecessors, the last of which was demolished in 1928. From the 1730s the northeast corner of Church and Broad had been occupied by a succession of important taverns: Shepheard's, Swallow's, Gordon's, and the City Tavern. The long room, or public room, of these taverns served various governmental purposes for the colonial government, as well as serving as the setting for Charleston (and America's) first full theatrical season in 1735 and the location of the establishment in the United States of the Scottish Rite of Free Masonry in 1801. This last tavern building on the site became a 19th century grocery store, Klinck and Wittenburg. (Poston, Buildings of Charleston.)

File contains 1937 newspaper article, "Where Scottish Rite Masonry Came Into Being"; research in the form of a letter from W.G. Mazyck to Bro. Grice, dated 9/4/1924, on the "old building at the N.E. corner of Broad and Church Streets"; statement of settlement of sale of bank to HCF (undated, no other documentation of this sale on file, needs further research).

Image #2 in this record sent to HCF via Charleston Before 1945 Facebook page, said to have originated from the Scottish Mason's website.
Subjects Historic buildings--South Carolina--Charleston
Bank buildings--South Carolina--Charleston
Search Terms Broad Street
Physical Description 1 File Folder
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Object ID # BROAD.044-48.001