All of our tours include admission to the Powder Magazine Museum, a National Historic Landmark.  Filled with interactive exhibits, including a video game that sinks pirates ships, it's a great place to visit for adults and children.

 

The Powder Magazine is the only standing component of the original fortifications that once surrounded Charleston. It is also considered to be the city's first preservation project. 

 

By 1704 Charles Towne was an walled city.  The  Powder Magazine was completed in the North West corner of this enclosure in 1713 under the Lord Proprietors' rule.  The walled city was was four blocks long and two blocks wide, bordered by the present Meeting, Cumberland, East Bay and Water Streets.  The entrance gates and the drawbridge were at Meeting and Broad Streets.  A Half Moon Battery was at the other end of Broad Street.  Four Bastions (military outposts) protecting the city were located at each corner of the walled city with eighty-four cannons along the waterfront protecting the city from the French, the Spanish, the pirates and the Native Americans.

 

The Powder Magazine has been restored to its original appearance (except for the addition of a thin plaster wash inside to protect the brick from a chronic moisture problem).  It was used as a powder magazine from 1713-1770 and again briefly during the Revolutionary War.  Its other uses during its first 200 years were as a stable, a wine cellar, a print shop and finally a museum. 

 

Visit the Powder Magazine website.