Looking north along the east face of Granville’s Bastion
Last week I had an opportunity to visit Granville’s Bastion, under the Missroon House (headquarters of the Historic Charleston Foundation) at 40 East Bay Street, with Walled City Task Force co-chair, Katherine Pemberton. With the aid of a couple of shop lights, a tape measure, and a compass, we were able to take a number of photos and measurements that will aid our future efforts to document and re-imagine the former appearance of this late-seventeenth-century structure. As you can see in the photo here, a significant portion of the bastion’s once-mighty walls remain intact under the Missroon House, even after the bastion was razed to street level in 1785. In fact, nearly the entire length of its east face, measuring approximately ninety feet from south to north, still stands approximately four feet above the sand. Using plats and descriptions dating from the 1690s to the 1990s, in conjunction with these physical remains, there is still much to learn about the design and construction of this historic structure.
Want to learn more about Granville’s Bastion, the brick “fortress” that guarded the southeast corner of colonial Charleston? Please join me for a free program at the Charleston County Public Library titled:
“Granville’s Bastion, 1696–1785: Charleston’s First Brick Fortress.”
Time: Wednesday, March 26th 2014 at 6:00 p.m.
Place: Second Floor Classroom, Charleston County Public Library, 68 Calhoun St., 29401.
Rediscovering Charleston's Colonial Fortifications 
24 March 2014 at 6:24 pm
Reblogged this on The Charleston Time Machine.
27 March 2014 at 1:13 pm
Hello, Dr. Butler – This is Phil S. just checking in to comment that your new presentation on Granville’s Bastion was great. It is really a treat as well as a privilege to follow your remarkably dogged, inspiring research; thank you, and your colleagues, for sharing your work so conscientiously and thoroughly with the public (especially with that segment of the public that doesn’t fit through 18″ holes in the wall). CharlestonTimeMachine.org is a great tool for all your “fans,” and will prove ever more useful as time goes on.
I will make good on my ginger snap commitment next time, perhaps with a bit of banana pudding embellishment (or vice versa).
It’s truly quite a gift to the city that you’re engaged in the important and significant task of vividly revealing events, projects and documentation surrounding the colonial/Revolutionary walled city. Your work brings to light the concerns, proclamations, procurements, and accounts of the early European settlers of both high and low estate — the point is not whether “the Walled City” became a done thing, but how the project figured into and reflected the evolution of Charleston’s and South Carolina’s economy, governance and society between Colonial and post-Revolutionary years.
If only all researchers shared your talent and commitment to bringing their work to the general population!