Charleston County Courthouse

Completed in 1792, to the design of the Irish architect James Hoban (1755-1831) who drew his inspiration from Leinster House in Dublin. It was after having seen the courthouse in Charleston that George Washington (1732-1799) invited him up the capital - then in Philadelphia. There, he won the competition to design his most famous work, The White House, drawing on both this and the Irish house as his influences. The courthouse here in Charleston was built on the foundations of the Capitol Building for the Colony of South Carolina which was built in 1753 and burned in 1788. The Courthouse, at the corner of Broad and Meeting Street, is still operational today.