Powder Magazine celebrates 300th birthday

Powder Magazine celebration, Cumberland St., Charleston, S.C.

These cute little gals were posing for me but kept their eyes on their mothers behind me. There was a crowd lined up to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Powder Magazine and the festivities were getting ready to start as I walked by this morning.

The small brick building on Cumberland Street is distinctive for its three-feet-thick walls, four groin vaulted arches, and a pyramid roof, architectural necessities in case the loose gun powder stored there in the 1700s exploded.
“It was very well built,” said retired USC art and architectural historian John Bryan. “And the proof of that is the fact that it is still there.”
The magazine was completed in 1713 under the Lord Proprietors rule and was part of the walled city called Charles Towne. That city was four blocks wide and two blocks long, bordered by the present Meeting, Cumberland, East Bay and Water streets.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/04/18/2730582/powder-magazine-celebrates-tricentennial.html#storylink=cpy