Gaillard Center

Ansonborough is a neighborhood in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1726, Captain George Anson acquired a 64-acre tract from Thomas Gadsden. Anson's lands were divided into smaller parcels for development, and several streets were named either for his ships or for himself: George and Anson (from his own name), Scarborough and Squirrel (named for the ships he came to America on), and Centurion (the ship he made his fortune with). Scarborough and Centurion Streets correspond to modern Anson and Society Street, while Squirrel is now a part of Meeting Street. On April 24, 1838, the area was devastated by a fire that swept from the southwest to the northeast through the area. When rebuilding began, the state offered loans on the condition that brick was used. By the 1950s, the area had suffered from a serious decline, and the Historic Charleston Foundation developed a program to save the historic area using a revolving fund.

Anson Street African Burial Ground is a recently rediscovered historic cemetery and archeological site where enslaved people of African descent were buried in 18th-century Charleston, South Carolina, United States. The burial ground was in use from approximately 1760 to 1790. The graves were uncovered during the 2013 excavation of a trench for the construction of the Galliard Auditorium. Initial impressions were that the bodies had been buried in four closely aligned rows, oriented east to west, all lying near the corner of Anson Street and George Street. Grave goods included British coins, one of which was found in the eye socket of a skull. The remains of a wooden coffin and buttons from what was possibly a boy's coat were also unearthed. The previously unmarked remains will be the site of a memorial sculpture featuring "a fountain ringed with bronze hands, all modeled from Black residents of similar ages to the 36 people found". Efforts to identify the origins of the buried people include DNA research, to identify genetic background, as well as isotope mapping, to pinpoint geographic locations for the birthplaces of persons from this and some other sites, as part of an ambitious project to get more insight into the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Theodora Park is a small public park in Charleston, South Carolina operated by the City of Charleston. The park was masterminded by David Rawle, public relations and marketing firm founder, who lives nearby in the historic Ansonborough neighborhood. The park, named for his mother, is one of Charleston's most unusual pocket parks.Previously, a playground known as the Ansonborough Tot Lot occupied the location, but it was underused; there were few children in the neighborhood, and a newer playground opened not far away. The design for the new park was inspired by Paley Park in New York City on 53rd Street. The centerpiece of the park is a 32-foot-long fountain pool with handmade ceramic tiles by the noted artist Paul Heroux. The park also features a gate made by Charleston blacksmith Philip Simmons. The gate is presented as a stand-alone piece of art. Sheila Wertimer was the landscape architect for the project and the Charleston Parks Conservancy helps maintain the park.The New York Times has called Theodora Park "a beautifully tranquil public garden." And The Post and Courier hailed it as "a new gem . . . a model for the future."The park was officially opened to the public on Saturday, June 6, 2015.

The Augustus Taft House is a Greek Revival house at 57 Laurens St., Charleston, South Carolina in the historic Ansonborough neighborhood. The house was constructed by Augustus Taft about 1836 using black cypress. Its interior has three fireplaces done in black Italian marble and pine flooring. The house has large, three-part windows that permit access to the piazzas.The house's interior retains the original room configuration. The front door in on the north facade and opens onto a stair hall. There are twin parlors to the right (the west side of the house) and a dining room. Behind the house is a three-story kitchen house. The house was two-story piazzas on the west side. Augustus Taft, a member of the same New England family of President Taft, built the house in 1836, and it survived a fire in 1838 that devastated most of the Ansonborough neighborhood. Taft's daughter married Pierre Gaillard Stoney, and the house remained in the family more than one hundred years. In 1865, the house was used to house freed slaves by the Freedmen's Bureau for six months.The house (both inside and out) is protected by a preservation easement given to the Historic Charleston Foundation.

St. John's Reformed Episcopal Church is a historic African-American Anglican church in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1906 and occupying a building built in 1850, the church is a member of the Reformed Episcopal Church's Diocese of the Southeast.

The Daniel Legare House is the oldest surviving house in the historic Ansonborough area of Charleston, South Carolina. The land upon which the house was built was sold to Daniel Crawford in May 1745 for a price that was much lower than expected for a house at the time, thereby suggesting a construction date after that time.When Crawford's estate sold the property in 1760, the deed included a reference to buildings on the grounds. Details about the house suggest two different construction periods. For example, there are breaks in the vertical woodwork between the second (main entrance) floor and the third floor, suggesting that the third floor is a later addition. Daniel Crawford possibly erected the roughly finished basement and first floor of the house while Daniel Legare, a man of means, perhaps expanded the house by adding the upper floor.Later owners included Bishop William May Wightman. Wightman served as the first president of Wofford College.

The Charleston County Public Library is a public library in Charleston, South Carolina. It began operations in 1931 as the Charleston Free Library.

The Benjamin Simons Neufville is a Greek Rival house at 72 Anson St., Charleston, South Carolina. It is one of the largest houses in the Ansonborough neighborhood. The house was built by Eliza Neufville Kohne in 1846 and remained in the family until 1904. The house was purchased by the Historic Charleston Foundation in 1959, which added a brick and wrought iron fence and tore down a later addition to the home, before selling it in 1962. While much of the interior was original, a fire in the 1950s resulted in much of the first floor of the home requiring extensive repairs.

The Chazal House is a Greek Revival house at 66 Anson St., Charleston, South Carolina in the historic Ansonborough neighborhood. The house was built in 1839 by the widow of a famous privateer, J.P. Chazal, who captured approximately 40 ships during the War of 1812. His widow, Elizabeth, had immigrated to Charleston from Santo Domingo after a slave rebellion on the island in 1794. Their son Dr. John P. Chazal inherited the property shortly after the house was built and held it until 1869. Following other intermediate owners, the Historic Charleston Foundation acquired the house on June 9, 1960, and resold it to Mr. and Mrs. William McIntosh III in 1963. The house was restored by the McIntosh family between 1963 and the early 1970s. The house is a fine example of a simple Greek Revival house with red Philadelphia brick run in American bond on the north and south facades and common bond (an early use in Charleston) on the front, or west, facade.

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church is an Episcopal parish in Charleston, South Carolina, founded in 1822. It was the first Episcopal church in the United States at which pews were offered to attendants at no cost; other Episcopal churches either sold or leased pews to members to fund the churches. The church was named as a contributing property to the Charleston Historic District when it was expanded in 1970.

The Middleton-Pinckney House is a historic three-story home built on a raised basement at 14 George Street, Charleston, South Carolina in the Ansonborough neighborhood. Frances Motte Middleton (a daughter of Jacob and Rebecca Brewton Motte and widow of John Middleton) began construction of the house in 1796 after purchasing a second lot adjacent to one bought by her father on George St. The house was completed by her and her second husband, Maj. Gen. Thomas Pinckney, whom she married in 1797.The couple lived in the house at least from 1801 until, on February 26, 1825, the couple sold the house to Mrs. Pinckney's son, John Middleton, for $10,000. One exception occurred in 1816, when the family resided on Legare Street, perhaps to permit the reworking of the house in the then-popular Regency style. A real estate listing ran in the Charleston City Gazette in 1816 for the sale of the house which described an "unfinished Brick Building, intended for a dwelling house" along with a kitchen house and another brick dependency. John Middleton died in 1826, and the house was sold to Mrs. Juliet Gibbes Elliott, at which time the house became known as the Elliott Mansion. The house remained a private residence until Jesse W. Starr Jr. bought it from Mrs. Elliott's estate in 1879 and resold it to the Water Works Company of Charleston in 1880. The water company was a private company until the City took over its operation in 1917. In 1988, the house became the location of the headquarters of the Spoleto Festival USA. The City of Charleston donated the house to the festival in 2002, which undertook a rehabilitation of the property. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property to the Charleston Historic District.

The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, often referred to as Mother Emanuel, is a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1817, Emanuel AME is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the Southern United States. This, the first independent black denomination in the United States, was founded in 1816 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mother Emanuel has one of the oldest black congregations south of Baltimore. Black Baptist churches were founded in South Carolina and Georgia before the American Revolutionary War.