This looks pretty old, which means it might be of interest to history buffs. But what is it and where is it? Send your best guess to: feedback@statehousereport.com and make sure to include your name and hometown. If possible, write “Mystery Photo” in the subject line.
Last week’s Mystery Photo was familiar to folks in Charleston who know it as all that remains of the old Charleston Museum before it burned in 1981. The Rutledge Avenue building, known as the Thomson Auditorium, originally was a Confederate reunion hall from 1899, but was leased to the College of Charleston in 1907 to house its museum. Fire destroyed the old auditorium in Cannon Park about a year after the museum oved to its current location on Meeting Street in downtown Charleston.
Reader Harvey Shackelford of Newberry remembers spending many hours in the museum as a boy “wandering around among the exhibits. No admission charge. Of particular interest were the many stuffed birds which I studied for my Boy Scout Bird Study merit badge.”
Maria Mansfield Richardson of Charleston also has fond memories of the old auditorium: “I spent many Saturdays there with my dad when I was a little girl living on Sullivan’s Island. Sadly, the old museum burned in the fall of 1981 when I was a student at the College of Charleston. I walked to the old museum that night and watched as firefighters tried to put out the fire.”
Hats off to others who identified the columns: Will Williams of Aiken; David Lupo of Mount Pleasant; Dale M. Rhodes of Richmond, Va.; and George Graf of Palmyra, Va.
Send us a mystery: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
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