Hibernian Hall - Charleston, SC
N 32° 46.647 W 079° 55.878
17S E 600085 N 3627120
Hibernian Hall, located in historic downtown Charleston, South Carolina, USA, was constructed in 1840 in the Greek Revival style and is home to the Hibernian Society, an Irish benevolent society.
Waymark Code: WMKDW1
Location: South Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 03/27/2014
Views: 3
The HIBERNIAN HALL {open 10-7:30 weekdays, 10:30-2 and 5-7 Sun. in summer; 10-5 weekdays, 10:30-2 and 5-6 Sun. in winter), 105 Meeting St., a classic two-story building, dedicated in 1841, was the first semipublic structure of pure Greek type in the city. It has a front colonnade of Ionic columns surmounted by a pediment. The entrance leads into a large stair hall, centered by an open rotunda covered by a dome with coffered panels, supported by superimposed columns of the three Greek orders. Each floor contains a large hall.
This is the home of the Hibernian Society, founded March 17, 1801, by eight Irishmen who had recently arrived in the State. The society is nonsectarian and nonpolitical and for years the presidents have been selected, by unwritten law, alternately from Roman Catholic and Protestant members.
Annual events of long standing held here are the society's St. Patrick's Day banquet and the New Year's Day dinner, at which 'Hop-in-John' is a traditional dish. This mixture of rice, black-eyed peas, and bacon is as dear to Charlestonians as porridge to the Scot.
The hall is most distinguished, however, as the scene of St. Cecilia Society Balls. This society, formed in 1762 for amateur musical concerts, has always been the city's most exclusive organization, and its musicales gave way some years after its founding to a series of annual balls. Members and guests are selected according to rigid rules and to attend a St. Cecilia ball is an honor as greatly coveted in South Carolina as to be presented at court. ---South Carolina: A Guide to the Palmetto State, 1941
Hibernian Hall is also associated with the Democratic Convention of 1860 at Charleston, which was a critical political assembly in our Nation's history. The Hall was the headquarters for the sector that supported Stephen A. Douglas, who played a key role in the convention. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark on November 7, 1973.