Powder Magazine has many stories

They don't make storage sheds like this anymore.

The walls are three-feet thick, the floors wide-plank with wood pegs, and the ceiling narrows into a set of beautiful Roman-growing arches.

The Powder Magazine, South Carolina's oldest public building, is quite good-looking for a 296-year-old — but unfortunately many people never see it.

No. 7 on Charleston's Museum Mile is one of the hidden treasures of the historic district — a small throwback to the colonial era that, tucked into a small lot on Cumberland Street, often gets missed by tourists.

The bad economy has recently forced its non-profit owners to drop admission entirely and instead rely on the kindness of visitors with a "suggested admission" fee box.

"It's difficult. We don't really have an advertising budget,"

Alan Stello, director of the magazine said. "We rely a lot on word-of-mouth, and mentions from the horse carriage tours."

But lately, construction has changed the path of many carriage tours. It might have been worse if the museum had not been included in the new Museum Mile brochure.

It should be a natural stop for any history-loving tourist. The Powder Magazine is one of the oldest buildings in the city and is in fact the oldest public building in the Carolinas. It was built in 1711 and 1712 as a storage building for the walled city of Charles Town's gunpowder supply (you really didn't want that stuff lying around).

On Oyster Point, the original name of the peninsula, the colonial settlers of Charles Town were exposed to constant threats from Spanish and French ships, not to mention pirates and American Indians. Five tons of gunpowder often came in handy.

If it seems like an extravagant place to store 100-pound barrels of powder, it is. But everything in the Powder Magazine served a practical purpose. The walls are three-feet thick, made of locally kilned bricks and oyster shell mortar. As the ceiling tapers upward, that thickness decreases to only two bricks thick. The idea was that the force of any blast would be sent upward, to the weakest point, instead of scattering all over Charles Towne.

To muffle the blast even more, the attic was filled with sand — some of which is still there.

"It's all pretty much original," Stello said.

The Powder Magazine was last used for its intended purpose in the Revolutionary War. Since then, it has served as a printing press shop, a blacksmith shop, a carriage house and a wine cellar. More than a century ago, the building was bought by the National Society of Colonial Dames of America in the State of South Carolina.

The Colonial Dames opened the building to the public in 1902.

"The Powder Magazine is one of the most important historic structures not just in Charleston, but in the entire Palmetto State," said Michael Coker, visual materials curator at the South Carolina Historical Society and author of "Charleston Curiosities — Stores of the Tragic, Heroic and Bizarre."

"It has seen the city contend with pirates like Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard, endured the British siege and occupation of Charleston, stood when Charles Town became Charleston, and survived the devastation of the Civil War."

Stello says the change in admission policy has brought a good bump in attendance — about 30 percent — and the income from the donation box has been about the same as the Powder Magazine earned in admission. On Saturday morning, a family from Orlando meandered through the building, followed by a group from Louisville.

The strategy, Stello says, has largely paid off because the whole point of the Powder Magazine museum is to let more people see a historic building and learn a bit about the city's past.

"The way I see it," Stello says, "higher traffic is better."

Reach Brian Hicks at 937-5561 or bhicks@postandcourier.com