{"id":8,"featured":1,"modified":"2025-01-24 20:53:29","latitude":32.78336990925482297143389587290585041046142578125,"longitude":-79.9370531737804412841796875,"title":"Porter's Lodge","address":"66 George St., Charleston, SC, 29424","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/76ecbfda0634710b2836a6d7ce8744ed.jpg","creator":["Julia Eichelberger"],"description":"

The building was constructed in 1850-51 during renovations and additions that re-oriented the College\u2019s main building towards George Street. Prior to these additions, this side of the campus had been a space for privies and a firehouse. Architect and College of Charleston trustee Edward B. White designed a new portico for the 1828 building and lowered the tall brick wall that had surrounded the campus, making the new portico visible to passersby.\u00a0 After the Lodge was constructed, the College janitor was asked to keep his firewood and laundry out of the main alcove and to get rid of a cow that grazed Cistern Yard. The former backyard, now enclosed by a fence rather than a wall, was further transformed by the attractive proportions of the Porter\u2019s Lodge, with arched entryways and iron gates. White\u2019s design resulted in a cohesive, elegant green space that framed and complemented the substantial Main Building, later renamed Randolph Hall.<\/span><\/p>\nToday, faculty offices occupy the top floor of Porter\u2019s Lodge, but these rooms were originally living quarters for a custodian, or \u201cporter,\u201d in the parlance of English universities that the College wished to emulate. Long-serving janitor John Cahill lived in the Lodge for almost 50 years, including the Civil War years when a horse-drawn fire engine was stored in the Lodge. Cahill was later commended by the College for remaining at his post during the bombardment of Charleston.

In the 20th century, the Lodge ceased to house a janitor, but was periodically used as a space for student clubs and a dormitory. The Lodge was sometimes referred to as \u201cthe guard house,\u201d but the janitor was often called upon to guard the College from the hijinks and vandalism of its students, rather than intruders, according to janitor Robert Matthews. During a brief period in 1918 when the College doubled as a barracks while students trained for the military, Matthews also served in uniform as an orderly. Interviewed for the 1930 yearbook, he stated that the horseplay of male students became more restrained once women began attending the College.

In earlier decades, Porter\u2019s Lodge offered a visual statement of welcome to those who belonged, while also declaring that this enclosed, tranquil park was set apart for College use. In Lemon Swamp and Other Places<\/em> (1983), a memoir of growing up in a middle-class African American family, Mamie Garvin Fields recalls walking past George Street as a young girl in the early 1900s. She and her sister peered through the gate at the campus, which was \u201cfull of pretty flowers,\u201d but they were interrupted by a white boy shouting, \u201cScat! N_____, what you doin\u2019 ya?\u201d The frightened girls ran across the street, where a kindly woman selling candy comforted them, explaining,\u201cChillun, dat ain\u2019t for we.\u201d This painful memory reflects the College\u2019s past as an exclusionary, white-only institution, but Fields recalls another prophetic remark by the candy-seller, who told the girls, \u201cSomeday you chillun will go right ya to get schoolin, just like dat po\u2019 buckrah who talked to you so mean.\u201d The College, which desegregated in 1967, now strives to be inclusive rather than exclusive, welcoming all into a space once reserved for sons of Charleston\u2019s white elite. Mamie Garvin Fields, who became an influential educator and community leader, was welcomed into the College posthumously: the papers of Mamie Garvin Fields are housed in the College\u2019s Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture.
\n

Although the campus now extends well beyond the Cistern Yard, Porter\u2019s Lodge remains the symbolic threshold into and out of the College. Its gates\u00a0 usually remain open except during special events.\u00a0<\/span>The College\u2019s spring commencement concludes with graduates processing out onto George Street through the Porter\u2019s Lodge, passing under a triumphal arch and a Greek inscription that translates as \u201cKnow thyself.\u201d<\/p>","sponsor":null,"subtitle":"Entryway to the College and the Cistern Yard","accessinfo":null,"lede":"Completing the design of Cistern Yard, this symbolic entrance to the College has also housed janitors, student clubs, and faculty offices. Its arches welcome incoming students and community members to campus and usher new graduates out at the end of commencement.","website":null,"related_resources":["Charleston News and Courier, March 30, 1946, June 1, 1947, August 1, 1947.
","College of Charleston Board of Trustee minutes. Lowcountry Digital Libraries, College of Charleston Libraries. 1852, 1856.","College of Charleston Comet, 1930
","College of Charleston Strategic Plan Framework<\/a>, 2020.","Mamie Garvin Fields, Lemon Swamp and Other Places: A Carolina Memoir<\/em> (Free Press, 1985)","Robert Russell, \u201c\u2018An Ornament to Our City\u2019: The Creation and Re-creation of the College of Charleston\u2019s Campus, 1785-1861.\u201d South Carolina Historical Magazine,<\/em> 107, No. 2 (Apr., 2006), pp. 124-146."],"factoids":[],"files":{"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/76ecbfda0634710b2836a6d7ce8744ed.jpg":{"id":40,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Porter\u2019s Lodge by Night","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/76ecbfda0634710b2836a6d7ce8744ed.jpg","description":"The Greek inscription on the doorway translates as \u201cKnow Thyself.\u201d Courtesy of the College of Charleston."},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/8e72d229a2d1baae2b450579f604278a.jpg":{"id":64,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Circa 1930s view of Porter\u2019s Lodge","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/8e72d229a2d1baae2b450579f604278a.jpg","description":"In the background is Randolph Hall, and in the upper right corner, the Charleston Orphan House (demolished in 1953 by Sears, Roebuck Co.) The College provided scholarships for a few boys from the Orphan House. Courtesy of College of Charleston Libraries, Special Collections."},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/27458d95ef8fe59db717f49ab28266b9.jpg":{"id":65,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Porter\u2019s Lodge, circa 1930s","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/27458d95ef8fe59db717f49ab28266b9.jpg","description":"Women enter Cistern Yard through the Lodge gate. Courtesy of College of Charleston Libraries, Special Collections."},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/c1bc3efcf1ae49486ef85307f394b2cf.jpg":{"id":67,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Robert Matthews, Head Janitor","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/c1bc3efcf1ae49486ef85307f394b2cf.jpg","description":"Matthews began working for the College in 1901. A Spanish-American War veteran, he also wore a uniform during World War I, when the College doubled as a barracks while students trained for the military. One of his duties during this period was awakening students living in Porter\u2019s Lodge and \u201cThe Shack\u201d on Green Street. Matthews, when interviewed for the 1930 yearbook, stated that the horseplay of male students became more restrained once women began attending the College. He also recalled nights when some students used the Lodge as a place to frighten or entertain passersby, using a simulated ghost, made of cardboard and a sheet, that they hung from the windows. Matthews retired from the College in July 1947 and passed away less than two months later. Courtesy of College of Charleston Libraries, Special Collections."},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/20d734ff9b0d003f9e2bfd6f6cf59880.jpg":{"id":66,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Porter\u2019s Lodge and playground of Bennett School, circa 1930s. ","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/20d734ff9b0d003f9e2bfd6f6cf59880.jpg","description":"In the 1930s the campus did not extend across George Street. Cistern Yard walls were the boundary and Porter\u2019s Lodge was the main gate. Courtesy of College of Charleston Libraries, Special Collections. "},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/9bfbaf2d79219998a0beb6b0d8dff1ea.jpg":{"id":161,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Mamie Garvin Fields, 1913","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/9bfbaf2d79219998a0beb6b0d8dff1ea.jpg","description":"This photo of Fields was taken a few years after she and her sister had been told to \u201cScat!\u201d when they looked through the Porter\u2019s Lodge gates. On that day, a candy-seller across the street comforted the girls, telling them that African American children should go to Shaw School because the College \u201cain\u2019t for we.\u201d Fields did attend Shaw, then earned her college degree in 1909 from Claflin College in Orangeburg. She had a long career teaching on Johns Island and James Island and was also an influential clubwoman who successfully advocated for adult education and daycare for children in the Charleston area. She wrote her 1983 memoir Lemon Swamp and Other Places<\/em> in collaboration with her granddaughter, Karen Fields. The papers of Mamie Garvin Fields<\/a> are housed in the College\u2019s Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture. Courtesy of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture."},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/4134f57a9076305e11237a17272950da.jpg":{"id":177,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Convocation 2019","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/4134f57a9076305e11237a17272950da.jpg","description":"Convocation opens the academic year. New C of C students have just submitted their first assignment \u2013 on the year\u2019s College Reads! book selection \u2013 and have attended a small-group discussion. In this photo, C of C staff cheer students on as they approach Cistern Yard, where the President, faculty, and student leaders are waiting to welcome them to the C of C family. At a future Spring Commencement, students will exit proudly through this same doorway. Courtesy of the College of Charleston."},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/f7129051d633d7ac561e0ffc18334a3d.jpg":{"id":42,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Faculty Office, 2009","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/f7129051d633d7ac561e0ffc18334a3d.jpg","description":"Dr. Catherine Holmes (English) works in her office in Porter\u2019s Lodge. Courtesy of the College of Charleston."},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/decef9bc6acf6737175007ed15103436.jpg":{"id":178,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Founders\u2019 Day, 2020","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/decef9bc6acf6737175007ed15103436.jpg","description":"This marker was installed in 2020 as part of the College\u2019s celebration of the 250th anniversary of its founding in 1770. Courtesy of the College of Charleston. "},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/58a176cf81c3ff5df5aaf10b84d2c26d.jpg":{"id":186,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Know Thyself","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/58a176cf81c3ff5df5aaf10b84d2c26d.jpg","description":"Translated from Greek as, "know thyself", this inscription adorns the central arch of Porter's Lodge. Courtesy of College of Charleston."},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/fullsize\/a5b63f820c6b8333dcb141de185b3db7.jpg":{"id":41,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"2019 Graduates Exit Through Porter's Lodge","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/square_thumbnails\/a5b63f820c6b8333dcb141de185b3db7.jpg","description":"Family and friends photograph graduates dressed in their Commencement finery as they emerge from Cistern Yard. Graduates wear white; those who earn special distinction also wear medals or tassels. Some students pictured here wear brightly colored stoles from their Nia Rite of Passage Ceremony for graduating African American students. Courtesy of the College of Charleston."},"https:\/\/discovering.cofc.edu\/redirect\/files\/original\/6a8df711e348bdf621771bcedcb321eb.mp3":{"id":214,"mime-type":"audio\/mpeg","title":"Audio version of this essay","description":"The audio version of this essay was voiced by Joy Vandervort-Cobb, associate professor of theatre at the College of Charleston."}}}