Reopening for business: City Market welcomes public Monday after $5.5 million renovation
Warren Wise // The Post and Courier
Many of the 20 new merchants moving into the newly renovated Great Hall of the totally refurbished Charleston City Market spent the past week unpacking boxes. The Great Hall opens to the public Monday at 9:30 a.m.
Downtown Charleston is about to get a new heart.
After 18 months and a $5.5 million makeover, the historic City Market, the central tourist attraction in one of America's most-visited cities, fully reopens Monday.
Capping off the extensive renovation project for what could very well be the most visited address in South Carolina is the opening to the public of the totally refurbished Great Hall.
The all-air-conditioned building between Meeting and Church streets, complete with skylights and a wide aisle for browsing, will feature 20 shops, all local and about half of them new to the market.
It's the last piece of a major face-lift to the City Market, which also includes three open-air buildings between Church and East Bay streets. Work on those was completed last year.
"It's just a tremendous shot in the arm for downtown Charleston," said Hank Holliday, a principal with City Market Preservation Trust LLC, which oversaw the extensive makeover of the entire historic landmark.
Charleston Mayor Joe Riley hailed completion of the city's centerpiece attraction as an important element in the downtown area's thriving marketplace.
"The City Market is a significant part of Charleston's history and plays a vital role in attracting business to the downtown area," Riley said. "It is noteworthy that so many local merchants will operate here as this makes it attractive to both visitors and residents, which I think is a wonderful development."
After an invitation-only event set for late this afternoon, the new City Market opens to the public at 9:30 a.m. Monday. It will be open until 7 p.m. seven days a week.
The Great Hall’s meandering walkway — built in the early 1970s when the market last saw an extensive remake — has been removed and replaced with a central aisle that now stretches from Meeting Street to Church Street and all the way through the three refurbished open-air buildings in the rest of the market to East Bay Street.
Light pours through a new skylight, donated by Velux Co., that runs the length of the Great Hall and also through the formerly enclosed arched windows.
Bluestone in the central aisle has been raised to the new floor height — about 42 inches higher near Market Hall that houses the Confederate Museum on Meeting Street before gradually tapering down to street level at Church Street — to prevent the previous flooding problem during heavy rainstorms.
The enclosed space also includes new restrooms, re-pointed brick, new lighting, new flooring, ceiling fans and an overhead camera system. Along a small part of North Market Street, visitors can enjoy an umbrella-shaded outdoor dining area near the two restaurants in the Great Hall.
Renovations to the three open-air buildings between East Bay and Church streets include brick re-pointing, roof repair, new lighting and an open center aisle to improve customer traffic flow.
What: City Market’s
renovated Great Hall
When: Opens 9:30 a.m. Monday
Where: Market Street, downtown Charleston
Number of merchants: 20
Who they are:
A Corner on the Market (jewelry)
At Home (home decor)
Caviar & Bananas (restaurant)
Charleston Angler (clothing)
Charleston Christmas Collectibles (holiday items)
Charleston Hats (hats)
Charleston Shoe Company (shoes)
Designs by Jane (children’s clothing)
Fishin’ Duck (gifts)
Food for the Southern Soul (restaurant)
Gallery Chuma (art gallery)
Gita’s Gourmet (jellies, relish, etc)
Historic Charleston Foundation (books, gifts, jewelry)
Jolin (dresses, purses)
Market Street Gourmet (chocolates, candy, cookies)
Old World Glass (blown glass objects)
Passing Fancy (purses, women’s accessories)
Paul Silva Gallery (art gallery)
Southern Charm (jewelry)
Wonder Works (toys)
1788: Six property owners cede land to the city to create a 100-foot-wide street from Meeting Street to the Cooper River for a public food market. The site was a series of creeks and marshes that the city used as a dump. The structures were built by 1807; they would have to be rebuilt many times.
1807: Strict ordinances — enforced with penalties ranging from steep fines to public whippings — are passed regulating what was then called “Centre Market.” Stands were rented for 25 cents a week, payable in advance.
1841: Market Hall, the building that now houses the Confederate Museum, is completed.
1905: The city considers abolishing The Market and converting the area into a freight station. “The green grocer and the telephone have made it unnecessary to the citizens of the community and even at the present time a large number of stalls are vacant,” a newspaper account observed that year. “The Market as a market is doomed.”
1938: Tornado severely damages The Market, demolishing the section east of East Bay Street and killing several people.
1944: With only four stalls operating in The Market, a newspaper said the area was “in a state of economic dry-rot.”
1966: A proposal to convert The Market into a shopping mall is dropped amid opposition.
1973: The Market is placed on the National Register of Historic Places. City leases the ground floor to Market Hall and the “A” and “B” sheds to a private operator, which became the Christopher Co. The city continued to run “C” shed, which fronts East Bay Street.
1984: A spooked carriage horse goes on a rampage through The Market, killing a vendor.
1986: The 440-room Charleston Place Hotel, called Omni Hotel at the time, opens across from The Market, a watershed event for the city’s tourism industry. The Market becomes the city’s No. 1 free tourist attraction.
2010: A $5.5 million makeover of the entire City Market gets under way.
June 27, 2011: The newly refurbished City Market reopens to the public. The centerpiece of the historic landmark, the Great Hall, is now enclosed and air-conditioned with 20 new and returning merchants. Its serpentine walkway, built in the early 1970s, is replaced with a straight central aisle that runs the entire length of the building, matching the open aisles in the reworked open-air sheds.
