re: The beautiful state capitols of the Southeastern Conference

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Yep, but wasn't the old State House still in use at the time? The old State House was completely burned down in that fire and a lot of valuable stuff was lost. I read that the old State House was designed by the same guy who designed the White House, James Hoban.

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Columbia was the location of South Carolina’s second State House. The legislature first met in this State House in 1790. At the intersection of Senate and Richardson (now Main) Streets, the structure was built of wood with a brick basement. By the 1840’s the State House had deteriorated and repairs were being made frequently. The General Assembly had become concerned that official public records being stored in the State House would be damaged as a result of the deteriorating conditions; so, in 1850 they decided to build a fireproof building next to the State House. The fireproof building would serve as storage for the official public records and as a wing to yet a third State House, the second in Columbia, which would become the present State House. Construction began in December 1851. John L. Manning (1852-1854) was the Governor of South Carolina at this time and recommended erecting a new State House. In 1854 the General Assembly appropriated $50,000 to complete the fireproof building and to begin the next section for use as the new State House. P.H. Hammarskold was the project architect; but, in June 1854 the State dismissed him after finding his work unsuitable and findings of structural flaws in the construction.

Hammarskold’s replacement was Major John R. Niernsee of Baltimore, Maryland. Niernsee completely dismantled the construction by Hammarskold resulting in a loss of $72,267 to the State. Niernsee began construction in 1854 with plans to complete the building in five years. By 1857 it rose to the top of the basement window-heads. On October 1, 1860, Niernsee reported that the structure had risen nearly sixty-six feet above the foot of the foundation and that the "absolute value of the work put into the building" was $1,240,063. "The Corinthian granite capitals, some 64," he said, were "being executed in a style and finish heretofore unequalled in that line."

Destruction in Columbia, February 1865 - General William T. Sherman and his Union army captured the State Capital on February 17, 1865 leaving city-wide destruction. The old State House was destroyed by fire. Niernsee reported it cracked five "bells of St. Michael's Church, Charleston," which had been "sent up here some time ago" and "deposited under one of the sheds." It consumed the valuable State House library, offices and workshops, a vast quantity of finished marble and rough material, estimated by Niernsee to be worth $700,000; and, Niernsee's library of architectural and scientific books, engravings and several thousand drawings, the result of his practice of twenty-five years. "These," said Niernsee, along with "one of the latest and best busts of Calhoun" and all the valuable detail State House drawings, contracts, and so forth, which had accumulated during Niernsee's ten years on the job, "were utterly swept away during that terrible night--an irreparable loss." A monument is displayed on the grounds where the old State House stood. The inscription reads:

HERE STOOD THE STATE HOUSE BUILT 1786-1790 JAMES HOBAN ARCHITECT BURNED BY SHERMAN’S TROOPS FEBRUARY 17, 1865

Additionally, work on the new State House was suspended as it was also set afire. The interior of the structure received the most damage. Shells from Sherman's cannons, which were of light caliber, damaged the building only slightly, and brass markers were subsequently placed on the west and southwest walls of the building to show where the shots had landed. Ten were fired in all. Six "struck the western front," with little damage "except one which shattered the moulded windowsill and balusters of the second window (from the northern end) of the Hall of the House of Representatives." Four struck the interior of the building.

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