The oldest surviving public building in the former Province of Carolina (completed 1713) — a fortress-walled colonial gunpowder magazine on Cumberland Street, now a small museum interpreting early Charleston defense.
79 Cumberland Street, Charleston, SC 29401
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Adult admission approximately $5-8; children's discount; check current rates
Access
Limited Access
Small single-story brick structure; ground-level entry but interior layout limits accessibility
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1713 · Oldest surviving public building in the former Province of Carolina (1713) · Last standing component of Charleston's original colonial fortifications · Gunpowder storage during Queen Anne's War, French and Indian War, and American Revolution · Saved from demolition in 1902 by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America
Construction of the Powder Magazine was authorized by the Province of Carolina in 1703 during Queen Anne's War, as part of a system of fortifications around the young colonial city. The building was completed in 1713 and represents the last surviving component of Charleston's original colonial fortifications.
The small but immensely thick-walled brick structure stored gunpowder for the city's defense between 1713 and 1748, when newer magazines were built. It served again as gunpowder storage during the American Revolution, when Charleston was a key Patriot port and later a British-occupied city following the 1780 siege.
After approximately 1780 the building was retired from military service and passed into private ownership. The Magazine Lot was held by the Izard family and passed by descent to the Manigault family — through Margaret Izard Manigault to her son Charles Izard Manigault (1795-1874) and ultimately to Dr. Gabriel E. Manigault (1833-1899). During the 19th century the structure was rented or used for varied civilian purposes including a print shop, livery stable, and famously as the Manigault family's wine cellar, storing a prized madeira collection.
In 1902 the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of South Carolina purchased the building, rescuing it from threatened demolition. The Colonial Dames opened the site to the public within a year, and the Powder Magazine has functioned as a museum almost continuously since. The building is a contributing structure to the Charleston Historic District National Historic Landmark.
Sources
The Powder Magazine's haunting reports are primarily collected by Ghost City Tours, Charleston Terrors, and US Ghost Adventures. Common phenomena include cold spots within the single interior room, shadow figures glimpsed in peripheral vision, and footsteps reported from outside the building when no one is present on the surrounding lot.
Ghost-tour interpretation typically anchors the activity to two narrative strands. First, the building's military function — storing gunpowder for over two centuries of intermittent use — is associated with the constant risk of accidental explosion. Tour operators cite anonymous workers and soldiers killed in colonial-era powder accidents as candidate spirits, though no specific named fatality at this site is documented in primary sources this research located.
Second, the building's association with Charleston's broader colonial-era pirate, military, and Manigault-family wine-cellar history has attracted folkloric attributions including, in some tour accounts, the pirate Anne Bonny — an association that, as with the Pink House nearby, rests on Bonny's Charleston childhood and proximity to the docks rather than any contemporary documentary placement at this site.
Additional reports from museum staff, collected in Ghost City Tours' write-up, include the sense of being watched in the back corner of the single room, and unexplained drops in temperature in summer months when the building's thick brick walls would normally moderate slowly. As with most short-visit Charleston museum sites, paranormal phenomena are reported as subjective experience rather than independently documented events.
Notable Entities
Tour the single-room interior of the 1713 powder magazine — Charleston's oldest public building — with exhibits on colonial fortifications, the Lords Proprietors era, and the building's later civilian uses.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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