“E” is for Exchange Building (Charleston). One of the grandest and most significant public buildings constructed in colonial America, the Exchange and Customs House on East Bay was designed by William Rigby Naylor and constructed by Peter and John Horlbeck between 1767 and 1771. The original design included a cellar, a first-floor open arcaded piazza, and a large second-floor assembly room. The roof was hipped with a parapet and lead-coated cupola. After 1783 the Exchange became City Hall and was the site of South Carolina’s convention to ratify the federal Constitution in 1788. For much of the nineteenth century it served as a post office. Since 1981 the Exchange Building has been a museum dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the history of the Old Exchange, the city of Charleston, and colonial America.
“E” is for Exchange Building
