White Point Garden
| White Point Garden | |
|---|---|
| Location | 2 Murray Blvd. |
| Area | 5.7 acres (2.3 ha) |
| Created | 1800s |
| Operated by | City of Charleston |
Coordinates: 32°46′11″N 79°55′49″W / 32.7698°N 79.9304°W
White Point Garden is a 5.7 acre public park located in peninsular Charleston, South Carolina, at the tip of the peninsula. It is the southern terminus for the Battery, a defensive seawall and promenade. It is bounded by East Battery (to the east), Murray Blvd. (to the south), King St. (to the west), and South Battery (to the north).
The southern tip of Charleston's peninsula was originally known as Oyster Point and later White Point because of the piles of sun-bleached oyster shells found at the edge of the water. Later, landfill projects resulted in the sharp-edged terminus of the peninsula.
From about 1840 to 1881, a public bathing house stood at the end of King Street. The building was constructed by James English, William Patton, and Henry L. Pinckney at a cost of about $25,000. A cake and ice cream parlor was operated on the top floor of the bathing house. The bathing house suffered several injuries by storms but was rebuilt each time. It was removed in 1881 as White Point Garden and the waterfront were filled in.
For more than a century, White Point Garden has been a repository of relics and memorials, with a largely military theme.
In July 1897, two 10-inch Columbiads that had been stored at Fort Sumter after the Civil War, were given by the federal government to a park in Kokomo, Indiana for use as ornamentation. It was unknown whether the particular guns had actually been in service during the Civil War. On July 30, 1897, an opinion piece appeared in the Charleston Evening Post in response to the news of the giveaway to Kokomo, Indiana that suggested that the remaining guns at Fort Sumter (perhaps twenty) be secured for use in Charleston's own parks. Later that year, Charleston's City Council voted in favor (with one vote in opposition) to request the balance of the guns from the United States War Department. The War Department eventually loaned ten guns to Charleston. Some were put on display at the then-Thomson Auditorium temporarily while two of the guns from the Union ship Keokuk were installed at White Point Garden in 1900.
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