The Charleston Powder Magazine is located in the historic center of Charleston, on the south side of Cumberland Street, between Church and Meeting Streets. It is a single-story square structured, with stuccoed brick walls thick, and an original red tile roof that is pyramidal with intersecting gables. Each wall of the building boasts a large arch. The walls get thinner as they reach the top of the arch, changing from three feet thick, near the ground, to just a few inches thick near the top. There are also few doors in the building, so that in the event of an explosion, most of the explosive force would exit through the roof, with the arches acting like funnels. Sand stored in the roof would then smother and put out the fire. Construction of the building was authorized by the
Province of Carolina in 1703, during
Queen Anne's War, as part of a series of fortifications, but it was not completed until 1713. It was used as a powder magazine until late in the
American Revolutionary War, after which it saw a variety of other uses, including as a wine cellar for
Gabriel Manigault. The local chapter of the
National Society of the Colonial Dames of America acquired the building in 1902, and now operates it as a museum, which includes historic artifacts and displays about the building during the Colonial and American Revolution periods. ==See also==