The Governor's Mansion at 800 Richland Street was built in 1855 as a residence for officers of the Arsenal Military Academy. Sherman's troops spared it during their burning of the city at the end of the Civil War. In 1868 the residence was selected as the official Governor's Mansion and has served so since. The mansion is now the center of Governor's Green, a complex of beautiful gardens and two houses, the Lace House and the Boylston House.

Charles C. Wilson of Columbia, who was the last architect of the State House, proclaimed South Carolina's State House "one of the most notable buildings of the world." Its Corinthian capitols, which had been designed by Major John R. Niernsee, were, said Wilson, "wonderful, nothing finer in France or Italy." The building was Niernsee's "life work." But his death prevented him from completing it, and subsequent architects departed from vital particulars of his plans.

The move toward construction began on December 15, 1851, when the State laid the corner- stone for a "Fire Proof Building" to house its records safely. In 1852, the General Assembly appropriated $50,000 to complete that building and to begin the next section for use as the "New State Capitol." P. H. Hammerskold was the project architect, but in May 1854, the State dismissed him for "concealments and misrepresentations and general dereliction of duty."

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