This courthouse, designed by prominent architect and

South Carolina native

Robert Mills (1781–1855),

was built in 1823–24 to replace a courthouse which had been damaged by two hurricanes. Mills himself,

who also designed the Washington Monument, called this courthouse “a great ornament to the town.” A modern Mills scholar has described it as “the most sophisticated of his South

Carolina courthouses.”

An initial appropriation of $12,000 was approved for the new courthouse. The South Carolina Board of Commissioners for Public Buildings, including John Keith and Abraham Cohen of Georgetown, supervised its construction by contractor Russell Warren. This Mills

design is an excellent

example of the Classical

Revival style so widely

used in American public

architecture during much

of the nineteenth century.

Marker is at the intersection of Screven Street and Prince Street, on the right when traveling south on Screven Street.

Courtesy hmdb.org

Credits and Sources: